tauranga mainstree monitorint reporg t purpose...

Tauran̂ faoty Monltoring Committee 17 August 2015

Tauranga Mainstreet Monitoring Report 1 January 2015 - 30 June 2015

DC No: 246

Purpose 1. To report on Tauranga Mainstreet activity for the period 1 January 2015 - 30 June

2015.

Executive Summary 2. The Agreement for delivery of Mainstreet services between Tauranga City Council

and Tauranga Mainstreet requires Tauranga Mainstreet to submit a six monthly report outlining the achievements and activities undertaken during the period.

Recommendation/s That the Monitoring Committee:

(a) Receive the General Manager: Strategy report (DC246).

Discussion 3. The funding for the 2014/15 year was $291,000.

4. Events/Campaigns/Initiatives - the report notes the events that Mainstreet Tauranga delivered include The Jazz Festival and Stranded Sundays, as well as campaigns including: Indulge Fashion Hotspots Campaign, Nourish Magazine Partnership, Students in the City Initiative. There has also been excellent support for the Cruise Ship Passengers arriving into Downtown Tauranga via the self-funded shuttle bus service.

5. Wharf Street Dining Precinct - The report notes there has been a tireless effort to successfully transform Wharf Street into the Wharf Street Dining Precinct.

6. Marketing - The report notes a focus on social media marketing with tangible results, including the Wings Mural Photo Competition

7. Financial - The report contains unaudited financial information from 1 July 2014 -30 June 2015.

Objective ID: A6400620 Tauranga Mainstreet Monitoring Report - 1 -

TaurangaCity

8 Monitoring Committee

17 August 2015

Significance and Engagement 8. Under the Significance and Engagement Policv 2014, this matter is of medium

significance as it affects a sub-group of people.

Attachments

No. Title

Tauranga Mainstreet Monitoring Report 1 January 2015 - 36 June 2015 Objective: ID: A6433004

Signatories Authors Lucy Brake, Contractor City Centre Planning

Authorisers Christine Jones, General Manager: Strategy

Mainstreet Monitoring Report - MAINSTREET TAURANGA

Reporting Period: 1 January 2015 - 30 June 2015

Attachment A Vision:

To attract more people into the city centre, who stay longer and spend more.

Core Purpose / Focus areas of Mainstreet Business Plan: Our core purpose is defined as 'contributing to a growth of a vibrant, enriching, thriving city centre that is passionately and proudly the commercial, cultural and civic hub of the region'. Mainstreet Tauranga can assist in contributing to this tangibly by way of:

o Events, Promotions & Initiatives o Place-making activities o Community Building within our membership o Dynamic Marketing Campaigns o Consistent PR campaigns to shift perceptions

Membership overview: Our membership comprises a mix of commercial, retail and service businesses from (the city side of) Monmouth Street to (the city side of) Second Avenue and (the city side of) Cameron Road. As at June 2015 there were 531 Premises occupied out of a possible 725 (73.2%). This reflects no real change in occupancy since our last six monthly reporting.

Summary of highlights:

Wharf St Dining Precinct

Over 500 railway sleepers from the old Matapihi Railway bridge, over 80 lanterns imported from Italy, themed furniture to complement the heritage ofthe street and a passionate desire to create a unique, themed dining precinct for all to enjoy and to enrich the city centre has come together to create the Wharf Street Dining Precinct, which opens August Sth in Downtown Tauranga. The Wharf Street Dining Precinct is a collaborative initiative between city centre stakeholders and the businesses and property owners on the street who saw an opportunity to transform the area to create a unique dining precinct. Themed to complement the heritage of Wharf Street, the precinct also features story boards capturing the history of Wharf St and Downtown Tauranga and community seating areas outside Creative Tauranga and the Tauranga Art Gallery. The street transformation is designed to uniquely combine art, culture and cuisine in Tauranga's first 'shared-space' environment. With traffic narrowed down to one-lane and a pedestrian friendly approach, the street is part of Downtown Tauranga's street transformation work in the city centre. The initiative simply wouldn't have happened without the energy and commitment of the stakeholders who have worked to bring this to life. The Wharf St Dining Precinct has been an amazing example of what can happen when likeminded businesses and passionate city centre people get together. Priority One, Aotea Electric, Rutherford Signs, the Tauranga City Council team, the business and property owners on the street, Carrus and Archistudio have all worked tirelessly with Mainstreet Tauranga to bring this street transformation to life and we are immensely grateful for their support. There's plenty more to do on the street but stage one is underway.

What some of the partners are saying about the Wharf St Dining Precinct Jarred Nielsen from Aotea Electric says it's been a great project to be involved in. "We've donated a significant amount of our time and resources to this project because we believe in it and we wanted to contribute to city centre revitalisation. The city we live in (Tauranga /Mt Manganui) is one of the best cities in NZ, our culture is

Attactiment A DC246 Downtown Tauranga Report 1 January 2015 - 30 June 2015 (A6433004) Page 1

10 Mainstreet Monitoring Report - MAINSTREET TAURANGA

a relatively casual one, centered on the outdoors, recreation, innovation and community. Fusing the Arts, Culture and Dinning creates an opportunity to showcase and utilize these qualities. It will complement our culture"

Rutherford Signs Owner Paul Rutherford agrees. "It's been a pretty big project. I would estimate we've probably spent over 80-100 hours on it to date. We've water-blasted over 500 railway sleepers to create the themed furniture on the street and over time there'll be even more to add to the precinct. It's a project we supported because it's a great community project and we like to actively support Downtown Tauranga."

Priority One saw the merit ofthe project from the outset. Says Chief Executive Andrew Coker "As an organisation committed to growing, attracting and retaining skilled and talented people here, and the businesses that seek those skills, the Wharf St initiative is exactly what Tauranga needs to build the city centre's sense of sophistication and vibrancy. It's this sort of recreational and hospitality offering that helps us compete on the national and international stage as a city."

Acknowledgements:

We would like to take the opportunity to thank the Council team who have been involved with helping to bring the Wharf St Dining Precinct to fruit ion. Without their commitment to the project and guidance we would not have progressed as far as we have.

Key Activity and Achievements (previous 6 months):

Activity Area: Events/Ma or Activities

Activity Explanation Results / Status / Outcome Cruise Ship Shuttle Bus To increase our share ofthe Cruise

Ship Tourist Market by building cruise ship tourist numbers through a self-funded shuttle service.

Service did not run Sundays or for smaller ships (as advised by TBOP). A half hour return service was run from October to April.

Promotion and support of events that encourage foot traffic growth in the C3D.

Jazz Festival Downtown Tauranga Carnival is sponsored by Mainstreet as it attracts people to the CBD over Easter weekend.

This season we paid for two Ambassadors, one stationed at the port and the other at the kiosk on the waterfront to greet passengers, give them directions and familiarise them with things happening/to see in the city centre.

A total of 8,292 passengers came across to the city centre via the shuttle service. A 6.7% increase in passenger numbers compared to last year (even with an increase in fare from $5 to $10).

We are now working on the proposed model for the 2015/16 season. The Board have invited Tourism BOP to attend their August Board Meeting to look how we can gain more ofthe cruise ship market share.

Jazz Festival Mainstreet sponsors the Downtown Tauranga Carnival. This year due to Jazz Festival funding restraints there was no stage in Red Square and no roving bands/buskers provided.

On top of our sponsorship Mainstreet paid for two entertainers to be

Attachment A DC246 Downtown Tauranga Report 1 January 2015-30 June 2015 (A6433004) Page 2


stationed in the CBD Rueben Simpson in Grey Street and Aaron Bloomfield in Devonport Road to continue the 'jazz' vibe through the city centre. Mainstreet also financially contributed to the band playing in Willow Street.

Mainstreet also organised and facilitated the Family Fun Zone on the waterfront that this year ran on both Saturday and Sunday (due to its popularity).

The Board have had a debrief with the Jazz Festival and have asked to see the vision for 2016 and are working with Jazz Festival to achieve a holistic and inclusive environment that benefits more ofthe CBD.

Stranded Sundays Stranded Sundays are held over the summer months to encourage other ways to use and enjoy the CBD (place making initiative). Also designed to assist in driving foot traffic growth and retail activity on Sundays

Stranded Sundays re-launch (in an enhanced model) focused around Masonic Park has achieved better outcomes. A shortened road closure area, shorter time zone (l lam-2pm) and having a key anchor event for each "Stranded Sunday" improved the model and resulted in better outcomes for each event. The last Stranded Sunday for the season was in February.

Activity Area: Initiatives & Market ing Activity Purpose Results / Status / Outcome Wharf St Dining Precinct Street Transformation Development Work

A precinct building initiative to assist in revitalising the CBD precinct by precinct.

Work over the last six months has included getting structural engineering reports, approval from building owners and businesses owners for the positioning of the lanterns, seeking alternative costing models and funding to do the first stage ofthe street transformation, having the furniture and supporting signage made and putting together a full marketing and PR campaign .

Launch is set for s"" August with follow on Wharf Street Winter Fest through August and September. Events on the Calendar include "Opera on Wharf St", "Urban Dance on Wharf St", "Open Air Movie Night", the "Lunchtime Music

Attachment A DC246 Downtown Tauranga Report 1 January 2015 - 30 June 2015 (A6433004) Page 3


Series", "Game On" event to lead into ITM Cup Match at the Domain, "Tapas on Wharf St" and more. Each week there will be an event to showcase the new dining precinct, but also to immerse into the offerings in the city centre as a whole.

Social Media - Facebook Development & Growth

To grow our audience and effectiveness of our communication channels by increasing our reach to our target markets

We achieved a record number of website hits in January totalling 95,396 largely due to the Wings Mural Photo Competition that integrated our Facebook and Web Pages. Facebook 'likes' grew at the same time by just over 6%.

In June we introduced another Facebook Paid Post Campaign to build our audience by asking them to tell us the one fashion accessory they can't live without. A seemingly simple and quirky promo but one that is delivering tangible results to Mainstreet in terms of an immediate and solid build in our audience with a good growth in 'likes' on the page. Facebook stats showed that in the first week of launching the campaign we had achieved a 70.6% growth in reach.

Downtown Tauranga Facebook 'likes' is currently 4,458 with 21 new 'likes' this week.

Wharf St Dining Precinct Facebook Page Development

After the initial PR on Wharf St we had achieved a following who were interested in how the street was developing so a standalone Facebook page was established to keep the project alive in the community

Wharf St Facebook page was launched on May 22"''. It currently has 1,953 'likes'.

Regular posts have been made about the Wharf St of yesteryear and a small competition to help raise awareness. Further posts are scheduled to keep everyone updated on what is happening as the transformation takes place including the Winter Fest plans which will be shared closer to the launch.

The page will then organically grow with the street and ultimately operate as an excellent way for the businesses in the street to profile themselves.



Indulge Fashion Hotspots Campaign

To position Downtown Tauranga as home to iconic and sought after fashion brands with a weekly profile in Indulge magazine, directly targeted to the fashion savvy female target market

Annemarie Quill checks out the latest trends at the Fashion Hot Spots Downtown Tauranga. Each week a fashion, accessory or homewares business is profiled in the Indulge Magazine showing the latest trends and profiling, to the public, the businesses that can be found in the CBD.

The campaign continues through support profiling on the DTT website and Facebook pages.

Nourish Magazine Partnership To develop an advertorial partnership with Nourish Magazine to profile food and fashion offerings in the city centre to this niche market

The June issue featured a double page spread on the Wharf St Dining Precinct and a separate generic advert for Downtown Tauranga. Each quarter we will be editorially profiling an offering in the CBD along with some advertising to connect with this target market.

Property Magazine Profile To increase the PR profiling of Downtown Tauranga and change perceptions.

Full page, focussing on the Wharf St Dining precinct appeared in the June issue.

Willow/Wharf Street Art Initiative A precinct building initiative to put life on the street and to promote the arts and culture sector of the CBD

Businesses in Willow and Wharf Streets paid for art and culture place making flags and foot path decals to go outside their businesses to draw attention to the services and products on offer.

Flags are a great way to create movement and vibrancy in the streets.

'Bike' Love Notes on The Strand A place making 'love note' initiative to add a smile and a bit of fun to the CBD

A simple bike display buried in the ground, designed to be interactive and fun. This is a pop up love note and not a permanent sculpture, but has the ability to come and go. It adds a little life to the CBD.

Plans to do more pop up love notes continue to be scoped.

Students in the City Initiative To create venues for student exhibitions and displays to increase the presence of students in the city and to provide opportunities to populate some of the empty stores with displays

The primary objective is to fill some of the empty spaces scattered throughout the CBD

Designed to encourage opportunities for the BOP Polytech students who are part of the creative industries course (graphic design, textiles, photography, art etc.) to have venues and sites to display their work throughout the year - i.e. as exhibition spaces.



and while these sites are untenanted make them more appealing and more visibly attractive

Contact has been made with some of the landlords of empty businesses to ask them to consider the utilisation of their empty site for a short student exhibition at some point to add vibrancy to our CBD, allow the students to have spaces to exhibit from and, maybe it also means more people will see their store site and view it as an option for leasing.

Downtown Tauranga City Centre Map

To engage with the tourist market including the Cruise ship passengers to assist them navigating the CBD

The DTT Brochure was converted into a city centre map and went to print in February. This was a self-funded initiative; paid for by advertising businesses. The map has proved very popular, filling a need that was identified in the market place.

Wings Mural - The Strand To create a mural that would encourage interaction and engagement in our city centre

The Wings Mural although completed in the previous six month reporting period continued to have an impact into the first four months of this reporting period.

Many images of the wings mural have found their way onto social media and people are still interacting with the mural today. It even formed part of a school project for a class in Tauranga.

Activity Area; Member Communication/Engagement Activity Purpose Results / Status / Outcome Member Newsletter-electronic format

new To utilise an electronic email newsletter system to achieve more consistent communications to members and provide us with crucial data on the performance of this communication platform

Monday' "What's On" Email Newsletter and Wednesday's "Newsbeat" Email Newsletter continues to work as an efficient means of communication to members. Open rates have been maintained at an average of 31% for "What's On" and 34% for "Newsbeat".

Additionally we send a "Latest promotions" Email Newsletter to our database. This averages an open rate of 34.5%.

These open rates are industry standard.

Member Newsletter-Contributing to City Centre Revitalisation

A hand delivered newsletter to all the businesses talking about all of the initiatives contributing to city

This new style of Newsletter has been well received by the members giving them a good



overall view of everything that is happening. It portrays well all of the projects that are in the mix and gives members one handy reference point, also updating them as larger projects progress.

centre revitalisation. Primarily to keep our members informed on what is happening.

After Business Business Held monthly to bring members together providing a convenient place to mix, mingle and network.

The ABB is hosted by the member with a drink and nibbles provided by the host. Mainstreet does a business card draw at each event and gives away $50 worth of DTT vouchers.

Numbers attending have been steadily increasing with approximately 40-45 people in attendance each month.

Members are keen to host this networking event. It is also another avenue to hear directly from members

Members Only Section of the DTT Website

An area for members to refer to for more information, a reference of previously delivered newsletters, training opportunities and more

A handy reference point for members that is not available to the public.

It allows Mainstreet to have information available to members without it being in the full public arena.

Member Visits To identify the current market status. To scope current feedback from members on how the retail/business scene is going.

The first hour each day is spent by the Mainstreet Coordinator out and about talking with members, assessing critical needs, feedback and gaining a general sense of the market place.

This includes doing exit interviews with businesses that are leaving and welcoming new members to DTT with a new members pack.

These visits are separate to scheduled meetings with members.

Key issues:

Issue Explanation Status Resources - Funding There is a lot that can be done to

revitalise the city centre but the biggest challenge that Mainstreet faces is funding. There is so much more that can be achieved and we value the support that we get from other stakeholders but this continues to be a challenge.

Projects scoped often do not come to fruition primarily because of funding restrictions. This severely hampers Mainstreet's ability to deliver in some areas.

This is an ongoing challenge.

Member Engagement With such a diverse and spread membership it is a challenge to keep members engaged and focused on positive outcomes for the CBD

The Mainstreet Coordinator member visits are ensuring members are kept well informed and any potential problems are identified early.


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Mainstreet Monitoring Report - MAINSTREET TAURANGA

Work is continuing in this area to have multiple engagement points to cater to the broad membership.

Future activities (coming 6 months):

o Wharf Street Dining Precinct - Launch the Winter Festival for Wharf St and further profiling the dining precinct.

o Season of Light Festival - To develop a "Season of Light Festival" that runs from Labour Weekend to Anniversary Weekend and packages up all key existing and new events and activities that are on, over that period, in our city centre to showcase diversity, variety and most importantly desirable and appealing reasons to come into the city centre.

o Christmas Parade - The inaugural parade held in the CBD last year was a great success and plans are underway to engage further with the community and to add a Santa's Party post parade (subject to securing funding).

o New Year's Family Festival - To create a festival around New Year's to ensure we offer an alternative to Mount activities and increase foot traffic into the city centre. We are currently working with a business on an interactive and fun family festival featuring large scale outdoor games that will be set up on the waterfront creating a giant 'Have a Go" fun park like environment. We are also working with another business to bring a Cultural Festival (Polynesian fire show, dance and music performance) to lead into the fireworks on the waterfront for New Year's Eve.

o Waterfront Exhibition Cruise Ship Season - To scope and develop an exhibition to be showcased on the waterfront, to compliment Hairy Maclary and add to the tourist attractions in the city centre. The cruise ship season is identified as the key season for this exhibition to increase our offerings and potential numbers of passengers from the cruise ships market.

o Mainstreet Members Workshop to focus on next precinct development - To engage with members in a structured workshop environment to brainstorm ideas, facilitate productive feedback discussions and stronger collaboration. The workshop will focus on street transformation and love note ideas, along with identifying 'where to next' after the Wharf St Dining Precinct - in terms of larger projects.

o Website and App development - We will scope the redevelopment of the Downtown Tauranga website to achieve a stronger value proposition around this marketing platform to help achieve stronger audience growth.



Financials:

These accounts have not been subject to scrutiny or audit and therefore subject to minor change

Ordinary Income/Expense

Income Christmas Parade (Reg & Sponsorship)

Credit Interest received Downtown Tauranga Vouchers Issued


Tauranga City Counci l Levy

TECT Payment

Total Income

Gross Profit

Jul " 14 - Jun 15

19,847.84

508.26

1,160.00

63,700.00

291,700.00

425.10

377,341.20

377,341.20

Budget

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

291,700.00

0.00

$ Over Budget

19,847.84

508.26

1,160.00

63,700.00

0.00

425.10

291,700.00 85,641.20

291,700.00 85,641.20

Expense

ACC Levies

Total Account ing & Audi t

AGM Expenses

Bank charges

Total Bui ld ing Expenses

Christmas Parade.

Depreciation

DTT Vouchers Redeemed

General Expenses

Insurance

Tuskany Marketing

Total Sponsorship


Total Expense

166.81

7,940.00

1,415.98

65.00

10,225.17

18,543.63

0.00

1,540.00

176.50

2,224.87

250,800.00

8,750.00

5,434.59

307,282.55

0.00

7,800.00

1,200.00

100.00

10,560.00

0.00

5,000.00

0.00

0.00

2,300.00

250,800.00

13,000.00

0.00

290,760.00

166.81

140.00

215.98

(35.00)

(334.83)

18,543.63

(5,000.00)

1,540.00

176.50

(75.13)

0.00

(4,250.00)

5,434.59

16,522.55

Net Ordinary Income 70,058.65 940.00 69,118.65

Net Income 70,058.65 940.00 69,118.65

Notes for the Financials: o End of financial year adjustments have not been processed yet by the Accountant, o Wharf St Dining Precinct expenses will come through August/September o A sponsorship commitment of $3k has been approved by the Board for Arts Festival from this

financial year but yet to be invoiced


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