London Circuit light rail construction is expected to impact businesses for at least two years. Photo: Michelle Kroll.
Bleachers Sports Bar poured its last pint over the weekend, citing “ongoing light rail construction” s one reason for its closure, and according to peak industry groups, it won’t be the last business to close its doors.
“After a huge ride, it’s time to say goodbye to Bleachers Sports Bar,” a Facebook post from the Melbourne Building bar read on 18 July.
The final day of trade was Sunday, 20 July.
“Due to the current economic climate and the ongoing light rail construction surrounding our venue, continuing to operate Bleachers is no longer viable.”
But the ACT Property Council warns that unless things change in Civic, more businesses will follow.
“A number of businesses, certainly not every single one, but enough … are doing it tougher than usual – tougher than the usual winter slowdown that we could maybe expect at this time of year in Canberra,” executive director Ashlee Berry said.
The owners of Bleachers Sports Bar blamed light rail for the downturn in business. Photo: Bleachers Sports Bar.
Since light rail works began in earnest along London Circuit in February, the government has provided free evening parking from Wednesday to Sunday for certain Civic carparks, waived fees for outdoor dining permits and lowered fees for liquor licences.
Over July, the City Renewal Authority also paid $32,000 to local advertising firm The Mark Agency to engage 13 local social media influencers with a follower count between 7000 and 159,000 on Instagram to advertise various local businesses.
“The posts focused on promoting Winter in the City activities and showcasing at least 40 local businesses in the City Centre and Braddon precincts,” the CRA said.
“The content was designed to highlight local experiences and encourage community participation.”
The CRA claims that by 14 July the content had reached more than 179,000 people. It credits the campaign with attracting more than 1800 people per day to Civic – including more than 4000 people on Saturday, 12 July.
However, Ms Berry says the businesses she has spoken to have yet to notice “any tangible impact” from the influencer campaign.
“It’s also hard to measure because it may have reached people who are interested in coming to Canberra or interested in doing things here, but haven’t yet had the opportunity to do so.”
She says any campaign that spreads the message the city is still open for business is still “really important”, but shouldn’t come at the cost of “actually helping those businesses stay open”.
“Whilst an influencer campaign or any sort of marketing is really good, it doesn’t fix the root cause of the problem.”
The government has installed signage around Civic to help pedestrians pick their way around the construction site. Photo: Michelle Kroll.
The ACT Property Council is calling for the government to reduce rates for affected businesses, improve public transport connections to and from the city (primarily buses), and expand public car parking areas.
“There’s still construction activity everywhere, it’s still hard to find a park, it’s still hard to know what’s open or what’s going on,” Ms Berry said.
“It certainly would not surprise me if we have more and more – particularly hospitality – businesses close because of what’s going on in the city … We’ll continue to push for things that will make sure … we actually have some businesses there ready to go and reap the rewards when light rail finally does open in a few years’ time.”
In May, the ACT Government ruled out further financial support for affected businesses, although it would consider other measures during the construction period.
The Canberra Business Chamber (CBC) agrees that light rail construction has exacerbated a number of wider, growing issues for small businesses.
“We’ve seen over a number of years – really the last five years since COVID hit – a systemic move away from working five days a week in the office, which was happening a little bit at the margins beforehand, but is much more entrenched now,” CEO Greg Harford told Region.
“You’ve also got an increasing volume of retailing happening online, you’ve got consumers wanting a different experience from the hospitality scene, and all of that makes it more challenging for business.”
Mr Harford is contributing to a local roundtable discussion with Minister for Finance Katy Gallagher and Assistant Minister for Productivity, Competition, Charities and Treasury Andrew Leigh on 13 August ahead of a national summit on business productivity organised by Treasurer Jim Chalmers.
Dr Leigh will address the “patchwork of state and territory-based rules, regulations, taxes, fees, charges” that entangle businesses, and “how much rigour goes into understanding costs and benefits before big spending decisions are made”.
He says the issues facing Civic business might be different, but there will still be learnings for the “state of the economy here in Canberra and the way the city is evolving”.
Bleachers Sports Bar was contacted for comment.
