Pop-up shops could be the solution for stores closed by demolition at Lower Hutt's Queensgate Shopping Centre.
Hutt City Mayor Ray Wallace said the council would fast-track consents and applications for retailers from the earthquake-affected mall so they could get back on their feet.
Cinema at Queensgate shopping centre to be demolished Photo: RNZ / YouTube
More than 100 retailers in the 182-shop mall complex are out of action for up to three months after it was announced one of its buildings would be demolished.
It was a bitter financial blow for the stores leading up to Christmas.
Chamber of Commerce chief executive Mark Futter said the council and local landlords could allow those retailers to set up pop-up shops around the city.
"There is a bit of capacity throughout the High Street and I do believe that the local council could probably instigate some pop-up shops.
"I do hope landlords with capacity and vacancy throughout the city start making approaches to enable these people to keep trading."
Queensgate Photo: RNZ / Eric Frykberg
Mr Wallace said the council would prioritise consents and applications needed to do that.
"We want people to be up and running, we're coming into the busiest time of the retaiul and business sector, being Christmas," he said.
"We will fast-track to get anybody up and running so that they don't miss this very important part of the retail year."
He said there were some empty shops in High Street that could be used.
Stride Property manages the shopping centre building. Chief executive Peter Alexander said insurance would not cover the tenants because the earthquake was a natural disaster.
View RNZ's full coverage of the earthquakes here.
He said retailers would have to bank on their own insurance pulling through.
"Clearly we have insurance, but the tenants' insurance, I'm not particularly aware of," he said.
"They're all independent operators - we're effectively just a landlord and they have their own businesses and their own commercial arrangements."
"It's a natural disaster, it's just one of those things that happens. It's an act of god."
RNZ has kept a running list of all the buildings in Wellington affected since the 7.8 earthquake on 14 November. Check them on the map here.
Meanwhile, a magnitude 4.6 jolt hit Wellington about 3.20am as aftershocks from the 7.8 last Monday continue.
Classified as strong, it registered at a depth of 17 kilometres and its epicentre was 30 kilometres southwest of the capital, about halfway across Cook Strait.
More than 1500 people on either side of the strait reported feeling the shake on the government's seismic monitoring website, GeoNet.