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The Detail is a daily news podcast produced for RNZ by Press room and is posted on Stuff with permission. Click on this link to subscribe to the podcast.
The nation’s largest infrastructure project, the $ 4 billion Auckland City Rail Link, is touted as a long-awaited solution to the nightmare of commuting thousands of people every day.
But it is far from over, and for dozens of small businesses it has become a desperate battle for survival. They say they are being crushed by construction chaos downtown and no one is listening to them.
They also warn that other businesses in the city and the rest of the country will face the same disruption as billions of dollars are invested in projects designed to lift the country out of the Covid recession.
READ MORE:
* Auckland City Rail Link: Businesses affected by road closures want ‘justice’ from updated hardship fund
* Auckland City Rail Link: Goff says hardship fund is not in council hands
* Auckland business owners disappointed with City Rail Link’s hardship fund
* Auckland City Rail Link – Any payments for distressed owners appear months away
Today The detail walk down Albert Street in Auckland to meet some of the commercial operators struggling to stay open three years after CRL’s work began, with roads and trails blocked or closed, filled with orange cones and barricades and the incessant noise of the building.
Sunny Kaushal, owner of Shakespeare Tavern on Albert Street, leads the fight for compensation. He says businesses have been sloppy and City Rail Link has treated them badly.
“In the last three years it has been a virtual shutdown for the street as we have seen for the Covid shutdown. And now these businesses have been hit with the double whammy. Three years of City Rail Link and then hit by Covid.”
Jessie Chiang / RNZ
The nation’s largest infrastructure project, the $ 4 billion Auckland City Rail Link, is touted as a long-awaited solution to the nightmare of commuting thousands of people every day.
Many businesses, including the iconic Mai Thai and Grasshopper restaurants, have closed and many are on the brink. Kaushal says that business owners suffer from health problems and take antidepressants.
We have a high rent, operating expenses are very high, we have to support our staff, we have to pay our fees and of course so many bills to keep running, that needs cash flow, without cash flow the businesses are about to close . “
Kaushal says that Shakespeare has made nearly $ 2 million in lost earnings in the last three years.
“Let me tell you that last week, for example, there was a Thursday and a Wednesday there was no one for lunch.”
He’s grateful to the loyal customers and surrounding businesses who send staff to support Albert St, including BNZ, who have provided coupons, but it’s not enough.
Jessie Chiang / RNZ
Anthony Ariano, owner of DaVinci’s Italian restaurant
The three pillars of business in the area are office workers, tourists and foreign students. Most of the people have not returned to the city offices and there are no tourists or foreign students.
“This is a challenge for the mayor of Auckland, first of all, to get people to come back to Auckland. The city looks like a ghost town,” says Kaushal.
“The government and agencies need to come out and support these companies because ultimately they are paying for our rail.”
CRL launched a business hardship fund last October, but the companies The Detail spoke to on Albert Street say it’s inappropriate. Kaushal has promised to continue fighting for compensation from CRL.
He bought Shakespeare four years ago when the business was profitable. I knew the CRL jobs were planned for Albert Street, but “we had no idea it was going to be on that scale.”
Jessie Chiang / RNZ
Sharon Brettkelly speaking with Sunny Kaushal, owner of Shakespeare Tavern.
“What City Rail Link was showing on paper were very nice, very colorful drawings, saying this is just cut and cover, cut and cover. This is more than cut and cover, it has virtually ruined so many businesses, it has destroyed hundreds of workers’ lives and livelihoods “.
Shobhana Ranchhodji, manager of a Roma Blooms florist, says CRL should give “free money” to customers to spend on affected businesses and help them survive.
“If they can’t give us the money, give it to people to use in our store. They (CRL) can give money to billboards, for a designer to come in and paint all that, they can do a lot for each other business, but businesses on the street have not received help. “
City Rail Link introduced its Business Hardship Program last Christmas. It is a rental-based scheme and applies only to those Albert Street businesses affected when work on CRL’s C2 contract there was delayed.
In a statement, CRL says it recognizes that building a project of this size in the middle of a city is a challenge and that the Entrepreneurship Hardship Program was one of a series of measures it introduced while working with companies for several years to offset the construction impact.
It has paid about $ 620,000 of existing funds for the project. It says it applied an impact assessment rating against rent. Due to the Covid lockdown, independent appraisers were unable to conduct inspections, he says. CRL responded by stepping in to make payments on an interim basis to assist businesses that qualified for support.
“The independent appraisers reviewed CRL Ltd’s appraisal methodology and confirmed that our approach was ‘well reasoned and appropriate when compared to fair market rent.’
He says there will be no more support.
“The Business Hardship Program was applied only to those businesses affected at the lower end of the Albert Street area by our C2 contract. Our C2 contract is now terminated. “
