The $17 million Maude St redevelopment in Shepparton has been officially opened by City of Greater Shepparton Mayor Shane Sali and Chamber of Commerce president John Anderson.
The redevelopment of the former Maude St Mall is part of Shepparton’s CBD Revitalisation Project, which includes works to rejuvenate Vaughan St and the Maude St bus interchange.
Street furniture, shelters with solar panels, CCTV, audio lighting and a new playground are all part of the redevelopment.
The Federal Government provided $8.6 million towards the project, the Victorian Government $3.75 million and Greater Shepparton City Council $4.8 million.
One-way, low-speed traffic, southbound from Fryers St to High St has been reintroduced, ending the block’s era as a mall.
Cr Sali and Mr Anderson cut the ribbon to reopen the street during a ceremony on Thursday, December 8 before being joined by two Christmas elves and a Christmas dachshund in a vintage car for the first drive along the street.
Cr Sali said the works would reinvigorate the city centre after some challenging times due to the COVID-19 pandemic and floods, and just in time for Christmas.
“It is very exciting, not only for Greater Shepparton, but the Shepparton CBD and in particular on the back of recent flood events,” he said.
“This is an exciting time for our community. It's a big project. It's been a long time in the making and it's great to have it finally open.”
Cr Sali said it was hoped a greater variety of businesses would be attracted to the area, providing for trading and activity beyond the usual closing times.
“Most people would obviously spend time down here through daylight hours, but we want to try and encourage people to spend time down here after hours as well and take advantage of the businesses that are open past 5.30pm as well,” he said.
“We’ve got Village Cinemas in here as well. We’ve got some restaurants here so this will provide a much better connection and we've seen how good Fryers St has done over the years, we've been able to be open and have the ability to attract people through all hours of the day.”
Mr Anderson said the reopening represented a great day for the city and noted the resilience of business owners in the street, who in recent years had had to cope with COVID-19 lockdowns and restricted access to their shops as the redevelopment works were undertaken.
“Apart from COVID, the traders here in the CBD have really been very, very tolerant to what's been an incredibly hard time with the hoardings being up, the dust, the disruption, and the impact on the trade just by people not being able to access, but they've stayed the course and they're here and they're happy,” Mr Anderson said.
“They've been really, really good and really understanding through this whole project.
“One of the interesting things is there were a number of empty shops here two years ago, there's not one, or there's not one that's not about to be leased.”
A major reason for redeveloping the street was to attract shoppers back to the strip, which many had criticised as “tired”.
One shopper browsing along the new development, Leanne Mow from Bendigo, said her home town’s mall, which was going through its own redevelopment, was not as good as Shepparton’s new-look street.
“It’s worse. This (Shepparton) is a great idea,” she said.
“Opening it back up is fantastic. The (Shepparton) mall is full of shops compared to Bendigo — it's empty. So many empty shops in Bendigo. It's crazy. So this is an awesome idea.”
Manager of What’s New in Maude St Fran Hawks welcomed the opening after enduring a long period of construction.
“Fantastic, now it’s all finished,” she said.
“It’s been a long process, but it’s all going to be worthwhile, I think.”
Lenni Pennisi, whose business, Lou’s Shoe Repairs, has been in Maude St for almost four decades, said he liked the idea of vehicles returning to what was a mall.
“Overall happy with the whole build,” he said.
“It ran very smoothly I think, overall. We look forward to seeing cars coming through. It's good.”
Another retailer, though, who did not wish to be named, said they are happy with the redevelopment, but unhappy vehicles would again be driving along the street, saying they feared a pedestrian would be hit by a car or truck.
Cr Sali said council would review the mix of foot and road traffic and make any changes necessary.