After being inundated by the worst floods in Lismore’s history, the owners of Lismore Central Shopping Centre, CA Property Group, say they are continuing to support their retail partners and the wider community.
In a statement they said, ‘While we remain closed at Lismore Central, we are working tirelessly to clean-up and restore our shopping centre and provide as much support as possible to our impacted retail partners, so that we can re-open and continue to service our local community.
‘We acknowledge that many of our retail partners are dealing with the devastation of the floods. For most of our retailers, their businesses are their livelihoods, and we acknowledge the damage is far reaching for the whole community.’
SCA Property Group’s CEO Anthony Mellowes, said, ‘Our thoughts are with our retailers, customers, teams, and the broader community. We recognise how devastatingly challenging this is for all and we extend thoughts to the community during this exceedingly challenging time.
‘While we are working to determine the impact to our shopping centre and the support we are able to provide, we thank our retailers and customers for their patience. What we can say is that we do not want out retailers worrying about continuing to pay rent while they are navigating the devastation caused by the floods.
‘We have seen the devastation of the floods caused to these communities and we acknowledge that many of our retailers are dealing with the impacts not only to their businesses but also their lives.
‘Our purpose, together, we build thriving communities through local convenience has never been more important and we will be doing everything we can to deliver the fast rebuild of Lismore Central which will contribute to the rebuilding of an essential community service in the centre of the Lismore CBD.’
Purchase limits
SCA said the impacts of the floods have resulted in supermarket chains having to reinstate purchase limits as flood-affected stores were water damaged and supply chains cut.
They say they are working with Woolworths to find a suitable space for the currently closed Lismore Central supermarket, to accommodate in kind, a temporary dry store to distribute essential supplies to the community.
SCA says its team is continuing to investigate the full extent of the flooding at Lismore Central and is working to ensure retailers are able to re-open their businesses as soon as possible, with further public updates to follow.
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