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hat was meant to be one of Wellington’s most exciting urban upgrades has turned into heartbreak for many business owners. The $41 million Thorndon Quay and Hutt Road project promised safer cycling, smoother bus travel, and vibrant streets. Instead, locals say it has drained life from one of the city’s busiest commercial stretches.

“It’s ghost town stuff,” said Steve Piper, owner of Co Kids childcare. “It’s dying.” Piper, like many others along the 1.8-kilometre stretch, said the so-called improvements had done the opposite of what was promised. Once full of tradespeople, commuters, and locals grabbing a coffee, Thorndon Quay is now quieter than anyone can remember.

The project began in 2021 when Wellington City Council converted angled car parks into parallel ones, claiming it would make the street safer for cyclists. However, the change slashed parking spaces. Businesses warned it would hit them hard, and now they say those fears have come true.

Piper said he had been forced to lease five car parks from a neighbouring hotel just to keep parents using his childcare centre safe. He described a “near-death miss accident” when a bus hit a car door as a pregnant mother and her two children were about to get out. He said parents constantly complained about “abusive and fast cyclists.”

With the new bus lane in operation, 60 parks can’t be used between 6.30am and 9.30am. “Tradies can’t stop before 9.30am southbound,” Piper said. “What if you’re a plumber and can’t park? You’re going to keep going. You want to pick up a coffee? Sorry.”

When construction began in 2023, it coincided with overdue pipe work costing $5.2 million. The months of roadworks, barriers, and reduced parking hit nearby shops hard. The decades-old Bordeaux Bakery closed, as did Kiwi clothing brand Cactus Outdoor.

Gar-Fare Cafe co-owner Brendon Carter said his customer numbers dropped by 40% during five months of construction last year. “It hasn’t improved,” he said. “If anything, it’s made things worse for everybody.”

At the other end of the quay, TQ Cafe owner Ay Touch noticed the same thing. “Everyone complains about the lack of parking,” she said. “Really, all I want is for the car parks to be put back.”

For Paul Robinson, owner of The Woolstore Design Centre, the project has been devastating. His family business leases space to around 80 small businesses across the Wellington region. “The Woolstore represents about 25% of our tenants by number but over 50% of our current and pending vacant space,” he said. “We have not experienced this level of vacancy in 20 years.”

Robinson said council officials admitted that no retail economic impact assessment had been done for the project. However, he had seen a draft report from 2017 that predicted negative effects. That report described Thorndon Quay as a “destination area,” where easy on-street parking was a major reason for its success. It warned that removing parking without proper mitigation could lead to business closures and relocations.

“This is clearly what has happened,” Robinson said. “We’ve repeatedly asked for reviews of this project. We’ve been raising concerns for eight years, but we just get treated as if we’re Nimbys.”

He said the area now feels more like a transport corridor than a shopping and service strip. Despite projections that cycling numbers would rise by 450 to 600 a day, the increase hasn’t materialised. “The cycle lane appears underutilised between 9.30am and 4pm,” Robinson said. “I reckon about 50 unique cyclists use the lane during these business hours.”

Ironically, he added, the cycleway is so wide that medium-sized trucks often drive along it. “This is normal – not exceptional behaviour,” he said.

While the project was first budgeted at $55 million, it is now expected to cost $41 million, coming in $14 million under budget. Of that, $30.9 million has gone on construction, $8.9 million on consultants, and $1.3 million on council staff. But for business owners, those numbers mean little compared to their losses.

At least two buildings along the quay have been put on the market recently, with neither selling. One property, bought for $6.8 million and later strengthened, failed to attract bids even when offered at $4 million. It is now under mortgagee sale.

Wellington City Council chief executive Matt Prosser said his team continues to engage with business owners and is finalising a report into spending in the area. That report is expected to be released next week.

For many, though, the damage has already been done. Once a thriving commercial gateway into central Wellington, Thorndon Quay now stands as a cautionary tale about how well-intentioned urban design can go wrong. The promise was a lively, people-friendly boulevard. Instead, as Piper put it, “It’s ghost town stuff.”