Central Auckland business owners are frustrated with a slow trickle of customers, disruptive construction, and an uptick in crime.
Auckland police say a new patrol base will open in the city within weeks Photo: 123rf.com
The once vibrant CBD is lined with empty shops as businesses are forced to close.
Businesses that have survived without tourists have started to wonder how much longer they can last, according to an Auckland property developer.
"Commercial bay was constructed with the whole retail component based on tourism," he said. "We desperately need more tourists, but we need quality tourists who actually spend money - not backpackers who pollute the country and don't spend any money."
One retail manager worries that once the tourists arrived, the ongoing construction wouldn't leave much to see. "It's going to go on for ages," she said. "Even getting the tourists back, what are we going to show them? Road works."
A number of businesses said the city rail link construction, alongside other smaller projects, put them at risk.
A jeweller said his business had only survived by chance.
"There's an element of luck, because you can't predict what major infrastructure works might affect you," he said.
"It hasn't really affected our business, but for other people it's been a nightmare."
Having worked in the city for decades, many of the projects had been a long time coming he said .
"Twenty five years ago people were saying there wasn't enough change," he said. "It might seem like it's all coming at once, but we need it."
Less welcome was a recent uptick in criminal activity, with business owners mentioning incidents of brazen shoplifting and ram raids.
"We had to call security a couple of times, there are people who just walk into the store and run away," one retail manager said.
"Especially for us as a street store, sometimes they have a car wait just outside so we can't even stop them. When you look, it's gone."
The property developer said he was worried by the crime, and so were others he knew working in the city centre.
"I simply won't come back into the city at night, even though my family want to come in for a meal, I simply won't do it because of the level of crime and how unsafe it is."
Auckland police said a new patrol base would open in the city within weeks.
Area Commander Grae Anderson said it would give police a better presence within the city centre.
"It just allows for ease of deployment," he said. "So we can do that in vehicles, but now we'll be able to do that much more easily on foot."