Contemporary Classics owner Grant Furniss says Tauranga's CBD retail is doomed without adequate crime control and parking, following thousands of dollars' worth of damage and the theft of sculptures from his Devonport Rd store.

'Our time is limited because of a planned rebuild on our site. The crime and parking issues associated with Tauranga City doesn't make it easy for retail. Tauranga needs to look after itself better than it is.”

On August 3, the owner of a Mercedes Benz, with the last four digits of the numberplate J338, stole a statue from Contemporary Classics worth $3000.

'We can't access the city surveillance cameras unless we are the Police, and the Police are not prepared to do any more than if they come across that Mercedes Benz, they will talk to the driver,” says Grant.

Last weekend he was threatened. 'Before 10am on a Sunday in September, three drunk young men stumbled into my store with one of them falling over a table then abusing me with their ignorance of why a price is what it is,” says Grant.

'Explaining that the value is due to multiple factors seemed to give them even more reason to be ‘aggro'. They left only to return 10 minutes later and while passing, the drunkest one pushed over a hand-created aluminum sculpture breaking the hand off. Its value is $5000.”

Grant says other people witnessed the verbal abuse that followed when he told the drunk he was calling Police.

'He threatened me if I did such a thing and ‘look out' in not such nice words,” says Grant. 'They moved down the street where they continued to drink beer and 30 minutes later drove off.

'I had dialed 111 and spoke to the Police, which resulted in no show by them and just a report acknowledgement by email. There was a survey at the end of the conversation with the Police, which had three options. The third option once pressed said: ‘Sorry that wasn't an option'.

'With the damaged sculpture Police say they don't have enough evidence even with the car's number plate.”

Grant says in future relying on Police will not be his only option; he'll have his own camera's evidence.

'I will confront the people myself.”

Grant opened his first store in Devonport Rd in 1978, followed by two sites further up the street.

'I ended up moving in the 1980s because of lack of access for customers due to parking rules and meter maids.”

He relocated to Mount Manganui and saw Greerton as another preferred retail space giving customers access without stress.

'We have had a store at Central Parade in Mount Maunganui for seven years, which has had some issues but nothing compared to Tauranga. Our store in Cambridge has never had a problem and neither has our store in Gold Coast Australia in the five years of being there.”

Grant says it would be 'a brave or silly move to start in Tauranga without the rent being stupidly cheap”.

He says the cheap rent offered in Devonport Rd and angled carparks outside is why he opened up a store back in the city centre again, it's limited lease of two years making room for offices to be built, and nine months left to run.

'That's the only reason I was prepared to give it a go as I changed from 260m Totara St to 850m Devonport Rd for the same price.”

Police say that enquiries are ongoing in relation to the theft of the sculpture on October 15. 'At this time, there is insufficient evidence to progress two further incidents, reported in August. 'Police have engaged with the store owner and provided crime prevention advice,” says a police spokesperson.

****Next week The Sun will talk to Grant about Tauranga CBD parking issues. Stay tuned.