With more than 40 spaces currently available in Bunbury’s CBD, bright coloured for lease signs are becoming the norm rather than the exception.
With local stakeholders working to try and inject the CBD with a sense of vibrancy, walls of for lease signs could be sending the wrong message, according to Bunbury MLA Don Punch.
Mr Punch said the CBD offered a unique shopping experience with services and products available that couldn’t be found anywhere else.
“We do know there are empty shops and we do know small business has been going through a couple of years of real struggle,” he said.
“The shops that are empty with for lease signs plastered all over them in my view is sending the absolute wrong message, it would be far better if the commercial agencies could have a central repository of what is available.”
Commercial Realty principal Mike Jenkins asked how it would be possible to lease empty spaces if interested people didn’t know who to contact.
“That is quite a silly proposition, that would be like him running an election campaign without signs or press ads,” he said.
