For years, Wollongong shoppers and retailers have bemoaned the CBD’s lack of free parking, with many residents purportedly avoiding the inner city due to parking station rates and council meters.
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But – from this Saturday – Wollongong Central management will finally relent and introduce free parking, allowing drivers to park without charge for two hours on weekends.
The GPT Group on Monday announced the new free parking period, which will be in place “on a permanent basis”.
The company’s regional general manager Antony Keenan said the long-awaited move had come in response to feedback from shoppers and retailers.
“It’s obviously one of the biggest pieces of feedback we get, and we’re always reviewing the parking,” he said.
“We saw weekends as the best opportunity to put in a period of free parking.”
He said a “controlled parking environment” was necessary on weekdays, due to the large population of office workers.
“On Monday to Friday, it’s quite a busy CBD and we need to make sure there’s enough spaces for shoppers. But on the weekends, you don’t have that worker population.”
While the introduction of free parking coincides with this week’s opening of fashion chain H&M, Mr Keenan said the Swedish multinational had not prompted the change.
“It’s not linked to H&M, but we thought it was a good time to launch the parking, because of all the other things we’ve got going on this weekend,” he said.
GPT is running a “Paint the town red” festival as part of H&M’s opening, and there will also be a celebration of Wollongong’s Olympians and a modelling competition held in the mall on the weekend.
Mr Keenan said the centre’s shopper numbers were up and sales had been growing in recent months.
“It’s all going in the right direction, and the introduction of H&M and David Jones investing in the centre is all going to support that,” he said. “Our traffic is continuing to grow quite strongly, and every month we’ve got double digit sales growth. The centre has been stabilising for the past year, which is normal for any new development.”
In addition to the free parking period, GPT will permanently continue its weekday $3.50 flat rate for up to three hours parking.