Having both been around 20-plus years, boutique store Decode’s closing at the end of the month while acclaimed Kiwi artist Ivan Clarke’s gallery will close in a few months’ time.
Camp St’s already been ravaged by September’s closure of DFS Group’s high-end T Galleria store, which took two floors of the redeveloped O’Connells building.
And large store Torpedo7, neighbouring Ivan Clarke Gallery and fronting Camp, Shotover and Athol Sts, shuts in February.
Decode director Shelley Alexander, who’d tried to sell, says ‘‘we’ve had to downscale in response to the economic times, and given the size of our store that just didn’t correlate with the downtown lease costs any more’’.
‘‘We’ve also noticed the decline in the number of locals that want to come into downtown Queenstown, and for reasons we hear repeatedly such as carparking and traffic.
‘‘It felt like a lot of responsibility and risk in this day and age for a single retailer to have an independent boutique in downtown Queenstown.’’
She agrees it’s sad to lose independently-owned stores.
‘‘I think people enjoy the individuality of boutiques and, yes, it’s the changing nature of downtown Queenstown, unfortunately.’’
Clarke, whose gallery sells both his paintings and Lonely Dog artworks, says ‘‘we’re going to simplify and take our [Bob’s Cove] home gallery up a few notches’’.
He says The Forge building’s been great — ‘‘I think it’s one of the best gallery spaces in the whole town because of its height’’ — and his landlord’s been supportive.
But he says while the gallery’s been busier than ever, ‘‘sales haven’t corresponded accordingly, and I think that’s very much the town at large’’.
