Lambton Quay foots it with the best

CLAIRE ROGERS

Click on the people icons on the map to see average hourly pedestrian counts for the busiest city areas.

 

There is still no beating Lambton Quay's foot traffic, but a surprise site has taken out the most-trodden spot in the latest central Wellington pedestrian count.

Lambton Quay hairdresser Jean Jacques is the site with the highest traffic outside its door, a Property Institute survey shows, with an average of 3214 pedestrians an hour.

Womenswear store David Lawrence was second with 2726 and accessories store Equip was third with 2457. All top 10 stores are on the west side of Lambton Quay.

The shopping strip is reputed to be the most expensive retail space in New Zealand, with rents from $2500 to $3000 a square metre a year, compared with $1500 to $3200 in Auckland's Queen St.

Jean Jacques has featured in the top 10 in previous years, but never in the top five.

Institute Wellington branch chairman Mark Spring said the result, which saw three stores north of Woodward St make the top 10, was a surprise and indicated a shift in pedestrian flows towards that end of the quay.

Spring said any shift was probably due to a combination of factors, including the 1600-odd Inland Revenue Department staff who had moved into the Asteron building opposite the railway station, and a retail revamp in the area that included the new Kirby's Candies and 2degrees stores.

Jean Jacques owner Jean Jacques said it was easier to find parking at the north end of Lambton Quay. His rent reflected the foot traffic, he said.

"Across the road I would pay half the rent but then I wouldn't have the same traffic."

Combined traffic from the two count points in Manners St, outside Cotton On and JayJays, averaged 1907 an hour, up from the 1447 counted for Manners Mall during roadworks last year, but below the 2030 recorded in 2009, before works began.

Hurricane Jeans owner David Byrne said the conversion of the mall into a two-way bus lane had halved foot traffic past his store.

"It's split between both sides of the street. Unfortunately, [the street] has become more of a thoroughfare now than a destination."

Manners St secondhand bookstore Arty Bees also reported a drop in traffic.

Spring said foot traffic was part of a mix of factors determining rent, and there was not necessarily a direct correlation between the two.

He understood Lambton Quay had the highest rent of any retail strip in the country, with rents between $2500 and $3000 a square metre a year, for the front 15 metres.

That was partly because Wellington did not have the same competition for retail tenants from shopping malls as other cities.

Total pedestrian traffic, excluding a new count point, was 66,000 – up 3.4 per cent on last year, but still below counts from 2005 to 2008.

The survey of 65 sites was carried out on November 8, at mid-morning, lunchtime and mid-afternoon.

- © Fairfax NZ News