The last few years have seen many changes in Redfern Waterloo with the City of Sydney Council completing their Redfern Street upgrade and the works on Redfern Oval and the Redfern Waterloo Authority’s expanded activities at the Australian Technology Park and their plans for urban renewal which include a significant expansion of businesses in the area.

Redfern and the surrounding suburbs of Waterloo, Darlington, Eveleigh and Alexandria are changing and the Chamber, Council and the RWA are all looking to the areas future broad directions, issues and problems.

The Redfern Waterloo Chamber of Commerce has received a $10,000 Business Support Grant from the City of Sydney and is working with the City of Sydney support to build capacity in the area so there can be a strong business voice.

“Redfern Business Precinct – Towards the Future” Study

The City of Sydney following from the street upgrade is undertaking a study into the Redfern Business Precinct and has assembled information from a number of sources including:

• a business and shopper survey Redfern Street (from Regent to Chalmers Streets) and Regent St (from Cleveland to Henderson Rd);
• information from the City of Sydney Floor Space and Employment Survey (Redfern/Regent);
• 2006 ABS data (precinct wide);
• Metro Strategy population and employment projections (again precinct wide);
• key influences (from surrounding areas, precinct wide, including RWA projects, other CoS capital works etc);
• consultation with local businesses

This study will be used to inform future work, including a strategic marketing plan for the precinct as a whole and in the development of targeted tenancy planning etc. The focus is on actions in the next 3-5 years.

Redfern Business Forum - Tuesday 6 May 2008

The City of Sydney consultants Environmetrics  reported back on their initial findings to a large Chamber organised meeting. The consultants also facilitated a discussion about the broad directions for the area and the key issues and problems that needed to be addressed as well as some of the actions required. The consultants and the Chamber have gone away to work further on the issues and will report back to a further meeting of Redfern Waterloo businesses on Tuesday 17 June 2008 6-8pm at Mr Mary’s Hotel.

Below you can download the presentation about the area presented to the meeting and the report from the meeting. The consultants have provided a bulletin board to collect further responses to the presentation and the issues identified at the last meeting. Please read the documents and make your input to these discussions.

RWCC Business Forum Presentation
Report on RWCC Business Forum Presentation
Post your feedback on the Presentation, Forum and the Report on the Bulletin Board.

The Chamber’s Initial Response

The Chamber of Commerce has resolved to establish a Redfern and Regents Streets Retail Strip Committee to address some of the issues identified by shop keepers such as shutters and the related insurance issues, pilferage and parking.

The Chamber has also co-opted three new executive members and has asked them to use their experience and interests to help develop some new interest areas within the Chamber. The new executive members and interest areas are:

• Mary Lynne Pidcock – Professional and Business Services
• Michael Mundine Senior – Aboriginal Enterprise and Culture
• Matthew Jones – High Technology

More initiatives will be bought back to members in the near future.