The vacancy rate for CBD retailers sat at 6 per cent in 2015 according to figures from the Queanbeyan CBD Commercial / Retail Floor Space Vacancy Report.

This compares to a NSW average of 3.4 per cent vacancy rate in medium sized shopping centres according to the latest Urbis Shopping Centre Benchmarks study.

But the Queanbeyan Business Chamber is spearheading a plan to fill the vacant shops and bring commercial energy back to the CBD.

Steve Stavreas from the Business Chamber said they are concerned about the direction Queanbeyan is taking with local business.

“Queanbeyan has slowly been outstripped by other commercial centres in the ACT who are providing a much broader cross section of retail opportunities for customers.

“What we’re finding here is the less variety in retail stores, the less likely people are to stop here and do shopping, they’d rather go where they can find it all in one centre.

“It’s not only the main street, you’re looking at Crawford Street as well, and a number of commercial premises that we would like to see filled,” Mr Stavreas said.

The Business Chamber will team up with council, local real estate agents and will treat this as a joint project.

This plan is based on a similar and successful project in Newcastle.

“Newcastle was going on a downhill trend in the same way that Queanbeyan is, and there was an individual there with a very strong community spirit saying, ‘we can’t let this happen’,” Mr Stavreas said.

“He then took matters into his own hands a created a model of revival that worked.

“Some of the principles are now being duplicated in other areas of Australia and it seems to be working quite well.”

The Business Chamber report is planned for submission to council on 25 May.