It's hoped a decade-long wait for New Brighton Mall's facelift will return the 'broken' business area to its former glory.
The long-awaited $4.2 million upgrades to the centre of New Brighton are set to begin this week.
The Christchurch City Council adopted the New Brighton Master Plan in 2015, which has since produced projects with the intention to revitalise the coastal suburb.
Among the changes will be new paving along the mall that incorporates the newly gifted name for the mall, Te Ara Kuaka, which means “the pathway of the godwit”.
There will also be a central gathering area in the mall, new streetlights, upgraded wastewater infrastructure, cultural artwork, and new bespoke seating, rubbish bins, a drinking fountain, and signage.
The New Brighton Mall has faced economic struggles for the last forty years, New Brighton Pierside developer Robbie Harris said.
“The business environment in New Brighton is kind of broken at the moment, and it has been for a long time.”
That wasn’t always the case, as New Brighton was once a buzzing weekend shopping attraction.
For decades, New Zealand laws restricted weekend trading, however New Brighton found a loophole to legally open retail stores on Saturdays from the 1940s through to the 1980s.
“That drove an enormous gold rush of retail to come out to New Brighton,” Harris said.
However, law reforms meant that national trading on a Saturday returned in the 1980s, which was the beginning of the end for New Brighton’s booming business.
The Harris family’s investment company, Martini Investments, now owns over a hectare of land across Marine Parade and the New Brighton Mall, with brothers Robbie and Chris leading the development plans under New Brighton Pierside.
Harris explained that New Brighton’s economic downfall was largely due to its widespread layout that was driven by the forty-year monopoly on weekend trading.
During this period, houses throughout the area were purchased by developers getting their hands on whatever they could to turn into new retail spaces. He said that by the end of that period, the New Brighton shopping area was “absolutely enormous”.
“The mall itself, because of the size it is, because of the layout it’s sitting in, is incompatible for what the area needs.
“And that’s why the master plan is to shrink New Brighton down by the waterfront and bring things together.”
