When the night is done at her family’s Turkish restaurant Seyda Coskun goes home, washes off the kebab oil from her shift and frets. It’s like this most nights and has been for some time.

As one of the remaining stores on Downtown Tauranga’s Devonport Rd, this is the harsh reality for those trying to make ends meet with a struggling business in a cost of living crisis.

While all passer-by’s might see are shopfronts among ‘For Lease’ signs, and construction sites – there are whole worlds of financial stress, waning hope and family burdens that toil within these businesses.

Turkish restaurant and family business Abrakebabra opened in 2008 on Devonport Rd.

Abrakebabra’s manager Seyda Coskun says: “Back then the street was a lot more profitable”.

“We actually existed back then. Years ago the environment was a lot more lifted. It was happy and people were more willing to spend money.”

Seyda Coskun, Hayati Gurleyen and Hatice Saribuga Gurleyen of struggling family business, Abrakebabra on Devonport Rd. Photo: Bob Tulloch.

More hours, no paychecks

Now, the business is taking it “week-by-week”. Seyda says the businesses is struggling with a lack of customers due to ongoing construction sites and lack of CBD parking.

“Our family is working far more hours and we’re not taking home pay cheques anymore because our staff need the pay cheques.”

She says restaurant losses are 40-45 per cent some weeks. With financial stresses and personal bills to pay, Seyda says it’s impossible to switch off from the business.

“It never goes away…most nights I’m just worrying because it’s a family business and it means a lot more than just working for another company. We are all we have. You go home, take a shower, and you wash all the oil and the kebab off you and just worry. It’s awful.”

Construction continues

Ongoing construction work on Devonport Rd and Elizabeth St is a huge problem for downtown businesses, says Seyda.

“We’re not getting any notices when parts of the road are all blocked off. “There is no compensation available...so we’re out of pocket.”

Devonport Rd’s construction sites include private developments and council projects. Tauranga City Council’s future office block at 90 Devonport Rd is expected to be complete early-2025.

Seyda says it would help customer foot traffic if construction work took a staggered approach.

“It’d be great if they could tackle one part of the city first, even one half of the street, then the other.”

“While we will try to mitigate disruption where we can, we do need to balance it with making sure the transformation can take place as quickly as possible so we can get the heart of our city pumping again and local businesses can start benefiting from that," says Tauranga City Council's general manager of city development and partnerships Gareth Wallis.

Carpark spots and costs

Seyda says the CBD parking situation is also “damning” business on both customer and staff fronts.

“If customers can even find a park, there’s then the parking charges themselves and they’re quite expensive. Cost of living as you know is going up. Our staff are leaving because they can’t – one, find a park; and if they can it’s too expensive which is just damning all of our businesses again.”

Gareth says TCC has been “closely tracking” city centre parking availability.

“Recent data from June 2023 shows, on average, only 50-60 per cent of on-street carparks are being used Monday-Friday. In parking buildings, during peak hours, no more than 70 per cent of carparks are used at any given time.

“Short-term plans are also progressing to develop a temporary carpark at 160-176 Devonport Road."

Business strategy

Tauranga Business Chamber CEO Matt Cowley met with struggling downtown businesses last week.

“Some businesses need help with business strategy to diversify their revenue sources, some need help with cash flow forecasting as their liquidity run-way is month-to-month, others need help renegotiating leases with landlords. The two most common issues are worsening lack of parking and the growing antisocial behaviour.” 

Seyda says antisocial behaviour in the CBD, making customers and staff feel unsafe, isn’t helping business either.

So is there enough support for these CBD stores who have been in our community for years? Matt says if you’re city centre business, the answer is: “No”.

“If you’re a ratepayer in other parts of Tauranga who’d be paying for the support, then maybe. Ultimately, if you ask a CBD business owner what support they want the most, it’s more carparking.”

Gareth says council has been implementing several short to medium term solutions to support local businesses at this time, through the City Centre Development Incentive Fund.

“Some of these initiatives include: partnering with Tauranga Business Chamber to provide free targeted support and mentoring to each business’s unique situation; and funded access to the Business Navigator programme managed by Mentoring NZ to ensure city centre businesses have expert advice and resources to get through this period of development," says Gareth.

"The unfortunate part of that is that it takes us away from the business and we can’t leave the business – there’s just no staff so it makes it a bit tougher on families," says Seyda, in regards to business mentoring support.

"I appreciate it takes time to do anything. I just think they [TCC] need to appreciate we’ve already given them a lot of time and they’ve caused us nothing but worry. No reassurance. No support. No real change.”

Support local

Downtown Tauranga’s Chair Ash Gee says the community is encouraged have the Covid-19 support local mind-set towards downtown businesses.

“Continue to support your favourite businesses in the city centre that may be just a little bit harder to get to presently. Community support is required to help get our city centre businesses through this transformation phase.”

Abrakebabra doors remain open, while other businesses of Devonport Rd have shut up shop.

“It’s really sad, and it’s kind of a reminder that that could happen to us which is really hard driving past all the closed businesses every day. It makes you think that really could be us, and who knows in however much time. It’s quite scary.”

Seyda and her family have started a petition for people to support downtown businesses.

Sign the petition at: https://www.change.org/p/support-tga-city-centre