Bridge Street retailers on planned upgrade

Creating the concept design for a revitalised Bridge Street is a collaborative one, involving an ongoing process of gathering and incorporating feedback from a diverse range of groups throughout Nelson, with a special focus on Bridge Street’s commercial and retail sector.

The Bridge to Better project will provide Nelson’s city centre with the foundational infrastructure it needs to flourish. Substantial wastewater, stormwater and drinking water upgrades will ensure capacity for hundreds of city centre homes, multi-storey retail and office buildings, and help strengthen the resilience of Nelson’s three waters infrastructure. Construction is scheduled to start in 2026, subject to the outcome of the Long Term Plan.  

Once the underground infrastructure work is completed, Council’s aim is to upgrade and transform Bridge Street into a people-focused destination, with more green spaces, improved places to meet and socialise, and to create a sustainable commercial environment for businesses and retailers. It will also be a more pleasant place for people to walk and cycle and provide better access for those with mobility challenges. 

Taken together these changes are designed to revitalise our city – making it a better place to live, work and play.
Bridge to Better is one of Nelson’s largest ever infrastructure projects and will take around 18 months to complete. During that time, businesses on Bridge Street will inevitably face disruption. For this reason, we have been engaging with them as early as possible in the process to ensure they can help shape the design, look forward to some of the project’s benefits, and so we can discuss how some of the disruption they experience can be minimised. Their input is vital to this project’s success.

Leading this engagement process is Chris Wilkinson from First Retail, a company that specialises in change management in the retail sector. So far, he’s had feedback from more than 60 different organisations, and conversations with 110 people with a stake in Bridge Street’s future. The variety of feedback represents the diversity of businesses that operate on this key street in our CBD, from retail to hospitality, international IT businesses to social service providers. 

Chris says having worked on many projects of this scale throughout New Zealand, one thing that was clear was that getting the impact mitigation strategy right was critical to helping retailers and businesses navigate the construction phase.

“While there is no getting away from the fact that large-scale infrastructure projects of this nature have an impact on access to the project area during construction, there are tools we can use, and tactics we can employ, to help minimise that impact. As a community we can support Bridge Street retailers and businesses and the project team is working hard on a range of actions that will encourage that."

For many, parking and vehicle access has been an important topic. With 800 off-street car parks within 200m of Bridge Street with an average occupancy of 60-80% there is good parking for most shoppers' needs. Feedback has suggested that on-street parking on Bridge Street could better prioritise those with mobility challenges, people making short visits, and delivering goods. Access for emergency services is also a vital element that the future street design needs to accommodate. This information has helped us prioritise the retained street parking in the concept design, which will benefit a range of users and help streamline deliveries. We are committed to exploring various options to compensate for any loss of parking, ensuring that the total parking capacity remains consistent.

Another recurring theme was the desire to make Bridge Street more ‘sticky’. Attracting people to the area and encouraging them to spend more time there to boost hospitality and retail activity and provide community wellbeing benefits. There are many ways to do this, including creating more shade, communal seating, integrating art, spaces where children can play safely and places to eat lunch and relax. For example, creating a space where more of our 5000 CBD workers want to spend their lunch break is just one opportunity that the concept design will explore. 

As the Bridge to Better project progresses through the concept design phase, Council will continue to seek, and listen to, feedback from all those businesses that operate from Bridge Street and the surrounding area. While we have a range of examples of similar projects from around New Zealand that have been successful, and a very experienced project team, we want to ensure that Bridge to Better delivers the best outcome for Nelson and ensures our unique CBD flourishes for many decades to come.