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‘A perfect storm retailers don’t want to have’:

Frankston shop vacancy rate soars to 20 per cent, traders point finger at road works, parking and youth

Frankston has become a ghost town, with traders blaming road works, parking troubles, and youth problems for a decline in trading.

Shop vacancy rates in the Mornington Peninsula suburb have soared to 20 per cent.

Con Markopoulous, owner of Cafe Buenta in Frankston’s Young Street, said problems in the area began two and a half years ago.

“In the last two and a half years, with the Young Street redevelopment and then the Frankston Station, there was a lot of issues with traffic. People couldn’t come down because they had the road closed for the works,” he told 3AW’s Denis Walter.

“The works took over 12 months more than was scheduled, and of course people started going somewhere else

“Because of that some of the shop owners had to close their shops.”

Mr Markopoulous said his business declined by 30 to 40 per cent while road works were underway, and his cafe is yet to recover.

“We still haven’t returned to what it was before the works started,” he said.

Mr Markopoulous said a lack of parking and badly behaved youths in the area have also contributed to slowing trade.

Roger Simpson, CEO of the Retail Solution, said the situation in Frankston is “a perfect storm retailers don’t want to have”.

“It doesn’t take much to put shoppers off, because generally there’s a hell of a lot of choice these days on where they can shop,” he said.

Press PLAY below to hear Con Markopoulos and Roger Simpson on 3AW Afternoons.