No quick fix for empty CBD shops

A proposal to brighten Nambour’s long-vacant shopfronts with art has stalled because organisers cannot contact property owners, a chamber meeting has heard.

Nambour Now’s Jennifer Barker said she had spent about 18 months trying to arrange art installations in empty premises,in order to brighten the town, but had made no headway.

“We can’t get hold of any of the landlords. Nobody’s willing,” she told Fairfax MP Ted O’Brien at the Nambour Chamber of Commerce Coffee Catch-up on August 6.

Ms Barker asked whether owners who deliberately left shops vacant should face tax consequences in the future. “It is a live conversation in Canberra, but at this stage, no,” Mr O’Brien said.

He said contacting owners remained the central difficulty and property rights limited what governments could do.

Mr O’Brien supported the art proposal as a way to bring “brightness” and “hope” to empty shops and urged Ms Barker to persist. “Please don’t let go of that idea,” he said.

Ms Barker also asked whether vacant commercial premises could be converted into housing. Mr O’Brien said that could be possible, but decisions ultimately rested with property owners.

Fairfax MP Ted O’Brien.