BUSINESS HORSHAM will explore whether new residential developments can take place in central Horsham, and the top levels of shopfronts converted to living premises.
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It is one of three initiatives the advocacy body is pursuing in the next 12 months, according to Vice President Paul Atherton.
He said the idea was borne out of considerations on what the city's CBD could look like in 10 to 20 years time.
"For all intents and purposes, we can't see our retail areas and current vacant shops are going to be filled, so what happens to those spaces?" he said.
"This is about encouraging people to move into the CBD, regardless of whether they are already in the region, and live in a townhouse inner-city living type scenario without the hustle and bustle (of a larger city).
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"It could ultimately involve changing some of our buildings, knocking some down... there are a lot of buildings where people could live, but the standard of those are probably quite low and need to be upgraded. It's about investigating that opportunity."
Mr Atherton said the overall goal was to change the way people used the city centre. In other words, to get them shopping and eating in the main streets.
He said Horsham Rural City Council had confirmed there was nothing preventing such changes in the CBD from happening.
A draft City to River masterplan, a 20-year blueprint of ideas to revitalise Horsham, prepared for the council in 2019 suggested upgrades for the area north of Wilson Street including more pedestrian crossings, public artworks and a public plaza.
"There is also a Young Entrepreneurs Program in the works, which is looking at identifying young entrepreneurs in the Horsham area.
"Guys like Gage Wright who makes fishing lures - identifying those sorts of people and providing mentoring and training opportunities for them to advance their businesses and have a place they can go to to ask questions.
"The most difficult part of being young and in business is where they go to for advice."
Mr Atherton said the third project was known as the Business Succession Program.
"If you did a quick search on Horsham businesses for sale at the moment you would turn up 10 to 12 businesses," he said.
"A number of them have been on the market for quite a while, and we don't have people readily coming in to take over the businesses.
"We are not quite sure what it is going to look like at the moment, but the concept is rather than losing business, because the owners have decided that's it... there is an opportunity for an existing business to diversify their holdings.
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"Breuers United Tools are a good example of that, where the Hobbs family are still selling tools, but they have expanded and diversified into party hire. So they have two parts of their business (on Wilson Street and Stawell Road) that are very much not connected.
"It's basically about making other businessowners aware of the opportunities, and getting people who are thinking about getting into business an opportunity to explore that option."
Mr Atherton said people interested in being involved in any of these programs could contact info@businesshorsham.com.au.
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Alexander Darling
Alexander has been a member of the Wimmera Mail-Times' editorial team since December 2018, covering politics, business and property among other rounds. He is a passionate St.Kilda and rock and roll fan, and has previously worked as a radio reporter in Port Macquarie and Gosford, NSW.
Alexander has been a member of the Wimmera Mail-Times' editorial team since December 2018, covering politics, business and property among other rounds. He is a passionate St.Kilda and rock and roll fan, and has previously worked as a radio reporter in Port Macquarie and Gosford, NSW.
