Racers Edge is opening the doors to its new Ardmore St location this weekend.
What you call the building at 20 Ardmore St is something of a Rorschach test for how long you have been in Wānaka.
Newer arrivals will think of it as the Mediterranean Market, but for long-term locals like Racers Edge Managing Director and co-owner Charlie Cochrane, the opportunity to move into the former home of the Barrows Hotel was too good to pass up.
Racers Edge was founded as a ski shop in Wānaka in 1989, Mr Cochrane said, before expanding into a ski, bike, outdoor and watersports store all under one roof in its current location at 99 Ardmore St.
In late 2019, Racers Edge moved its bike operation to Helwick St, but as the bike industry suffered with oversupply issues caused by the coronavirus pandemic, the business had to make a change to ensure that the bike side of the business was in good shape moving forward.
“We discovered that Mediterranean Market and McKenzie & Willis were exiting out of the Barrows building.
“That had real appeal to us because of the high-profile location, but also because for locals and long-time Wānaka visitors, Barrow’s was an iconic restaurant and bar in Wānaka.
“There was a lot of good times had there,” Mr Cochrane said.
At the same time that the building’s tenants were leaving, the building was sold to new owners, but before Racers Edge could move in, the landlord took what Mr Cochrane describes as the “prudent” step to improve the building’s earthquake strengthening.
“It meant we didn’t get in there quite as quickly as we would have liked to, but the race is on now and we’re keen to get the doors open on Saturday,” Mr Cochrane said.
Clothing and footwear will remain at the existing store at 99 Ardmore St, while the bike and snowsports side of the business — where the products are larger and there is heavy traffic with customers renting and returning bikes, skis and snowboards — will move to the dedicated new space.
“The new site means we can enhance the experience for our retail and rental customers,” Mr Cochrane said.
Key to the businesses’ desire to enhance the customer experience is the site’s 25 car parking spaces.
“One of the most important things for us going there was the car parks.
“When you’re dealing in products like bikes, and skis, and doing rentals and repairs, you need somewhere to be able to get your skis off your car, and you know, you can’t ride a broken bike to a bike shop,” Mr Cochrane said.
In addition to more space for products with larger footprints, Mr Cochrane hopes to use some of the new spaces to provide a more interesting place to shop, and for the community to gather.
“One of the key focuses was to make it an interesting place to come and hang out,” Mr Cochrane said.
“We’ve got our ‘bike bar’, which is a retail counter, but its also an opportunity to sit and have a chat with the mechanics to figure out a problem with your bike, or to talk bike tech.
“And then we’ve really focussed on using the store as a whare for the community to enjoy.
“It’s an iconic building with some iconic features, and one of them is a really cool schist fireplace, which in our eyes, lends itself to building a space for the community to hang out with a coffee table and some seating.
“We’ll have an opportunity to really utilise that area, and to push retail aside of an evening and do some storytelling, some coaching and to host some workshops.”
Racers Edge new store at 20 Ardmore St opens at 9am on Saturday.
