With its crates of vinyl LPs and vintage record player, stepping inside Crosstalk Records on Norton Street in Leichhardt is like entering a time warp.
Yet founder Joshua Gibbs has developed a loyal base of customers willing to pay $65 for a Curtis Mayfield album despite competition from online retailers.
“No one walks into your lounge room and compliments you on your great Spotify collection,” he said.
Small-business owners Dan Teh and Joshua Gibbs say shopping strips like Norton Street in Leichhardt could benefit from greater density.Credit: Wolter Peeters
Next door, Otis bar has a steady stream of afternoon drinkers, including a group of young dads, as the 437 bus zooms past.
Gibbs and Otis’ co-owner Dan Teh say talk of Norton Street being a ghost town is unfair.
However, Teh said there are shops that have been empty for years with landlords making no attempt to find tenants, “which is extremely disappointing given that more businesses in the area means more foot traffic and more business for everyone”.
“It also is just a bad look for the street when there are empty shops around,” he said.
An estimated 9 per cent of shops on Norton Street are empty, but the figure rises to 13 per cent if the Italian Forum is included.Credit: Wolter Peeters
Norton Street is not the only suburban shopping strip in the doldrums. From Oxford Street in Darlinghurst – decimated by lockout laws and blighted by a delayed construction project and roadworks – to Glebe Point Road and the Manly Corso, many of Sydney’s main streets are weighed down by empty shopfronts.
Knight Frank’s joint head of South Sydney, Anthony Pirrottina, said retailers outside of shopping centres were struggling in precincts such as Norton Street.
“I think it’s something long term,” he said. “People want to go online or in a shopping centre.”
Pirrottina said 9 per cent of shopfronts on Norton Street are vacant, but the figure rises to 13 per cent if the much-maligned Italian Forum is included.
Otis bar co-owner Dan Teh and Crosstalk Records founder Joshua Gibbs.Credit: Wolter Peeters
Glebe Point Road has even more empty shops (16 per cent), followed by Cleveland Street (13 per cent), Illawarra and Marrickville Roads (12 per cent) and Majors Bay Road in Concord (6 per cent). Newtown’s much more lively King Street and the nearby Enmore Road are on 5 per cent.
Manly’s retail vacancy rate was 8.4 per cent in May – an improvement from 2023, when it hovered around 10 per cent.
Northern Beaches councillor Sarah Grattan said consumer spending had risen in the past 12 months, buoyed by the success of Norma’s Deli and Butter Boy cookie store, which both have large social media followings, but many Manly businesses were struggling.
The Corso in Manly.Credit: Nikki Short
Manly Liberal MP James Griffin said parts of the Corso looked “very tired” and its retail offering had not kept up with changing shopping habits.
Griffin wants tax breaks or other incentives to encourage pop-up shops in empty stores. He said the beach suburb had to move beyond its reliance on tourists in summer.
He suggested measures such as changing the mix of retail offerings, “pushing hard on becoming a health and wellness mecca with great dining options” and bringing the Vivid light festival to Manly in 2025.
Street upgrades, events and taxing landlords who leave stores empty are solutions to crippled high streets often touted by local councils and politicians, but Gibbs and Teh also want more residents who will potentially buy records and drink beer.
“More people in the area would help a lot,” Teh said. “As long as they don’t disrupt local businesses with unreasonable noise complaints.”
That is music to the ears of Planning Minister Paul Scully, whose signature housing reforms face an uncertain future after Liberal planning spokesman Scott Farlow introduced a bill to scuttle plans for more apartment buildings near transport hubs.
“Our planning reforms are aimed at delivering more vibrant and lively communities. A mix of housing types will attract a wider variety of residents, which will support a mix of small and medium businesses,” Scully said.
‘An extra vibe’
Inner West Labor Mayor Darcy Byrne, whose local government area includes Norton Street, also backs greater housing density around shopping strips. Main streets have declined in suburbs such as Balmain and Haberfield without apartment developments, he said.
“There’s an extra vitality and a vibe that’s created when you have younger people and renters living on top of the main street and then spending money there,” he said.
But Balmain Greens MP Kobi Shetty said increasing density would not result in people spending more money in their local area if the homes were not affordable.
Shetty, who is also an Inner West councillor, wants higher rates on vacant commercial properties to be considered – a policy backed by Byrne.
Business Sydney executive director Paul Nicolaou said Norton Street’s decline was linked to Parramatta Road, which the business lobby group wants to be redeveloped with high-density housing and light rail.
Committee for Sydney head of policy Jeremy Gill said while cost-of-living pressures have impacted retail demand, high streets have been declining for at least a decade, “and COVID-19 really just accelerated these trends”.
Gill said streetscape improvements may give shoppers more space to walk or sit, but “the centre still needs to offer something to people to visit in the first place”.
“It doesn’t matter how nice your streetscape upgrades and planter boxes are if there is no reason for people to visit and no activity to sustain local businesses,” he said.
Gill pointed to Paddington’s Oxford Street, which was kept buoyant as a retail shopping destination, or Enmore Road, which had evolved into a vibrant nighttime precinct, as the way to ensure high streets thrived.
He said policy changes to allow a greater diversity of shops and services may help reinvigorate local high streets.
“Increasing residential densities around centres brings more people into the neighbourhood who need local shops and services,” he said. “Often people think development will kill their local centre, but in struggling high streets, often it is what can revive it.”
Nicolaou also believes greater density will rescue beleaguered high streets.
“More people means bigger communities wanting access to a wide range of businesses supplying what they want and need close to home,” he said.
“Like New York, Sydney has the capacity to become a city of ‘villages’ or neighbourhoods, and higher density can add to this phenomenon.”