The 94-year-old arcade, with a heritage-listed façade and entrances on Rundle Mall and Grenfell Street, bore the brunt of COVID-19’s impact on the CBD last year, with more than a dozen vacant shopfronts lining the heritage strip at various points during the pandemic.

The lack of tenants and foot traffic prompted an urgent call from existing retailers last year for the arcade’s overseas owners to do more to attract prospective tenants.

The arcade has since welcomed national book retailer Dymocks into the old Regent Theatre space directly above the arcade and Japanese restaurant Ajisen Ramen to a prominent tenancy facing Grenfell Street.

Other tenants, such as vegan restaurant Veggie Vie and café Larry & Ladd, have vacated the strip since April 2021.

A compilation of empty spaces in Regent Arcade in April 2021. Photo: Thomas Kelsall/InDaily

But the arcade is set to get a boost following a decision from the landlords to re-engage Renew Adelaide to offer eight vacant spaces to suitable new business ventures.

New Renew Adelaide CEO Gianna Murphy said the organisation would be “open minded” about what new businesses would best fit with the arcade’s current tenancy mix.

She said they would be encouraging applications from florist, homeware, fashion and design ventures.

“Our focus is still going to be on local makers and creators that support the existing tenancy mix,” she said.

“I think that if you have a look at what work has gone on in the arcade, more recently Dymocks upstairs and also what you’re sort of seeing across Rundle Mall with a lot of national and international brands kind of coming in – that’s great, but it’s also not what necessarily what keeps Adelaide unique and Rundle Mall unique.

“So I think that that additional work that Renew Adelaide supports of those small, vibrant, interesting businesses is what can keep the buzz alive in the CBD.”

Renew Adelaide is a not-for-profit that links property owners in the CBD with prospective tenants, offering short-term, rent-free commercial leases for vacant properties.

The organisation has a history with Regent Arcade dating back to 2014 when it was engaged by the area’s former owners, the Ginos Group, and activated 12 spaces.

Murphy said Renew Adelaide’s latest involvement represents an opportunity to transform Regent Arcade’s future target demographic.

“For us it’s wanting to, I suppose, bring a very similar demographic to what you do see in Adelaide Arcade, relying less heavily on an office worker and more heavily on people who are interested in shopping somewhere unique and more interesting,” she said.

Asked why Regent Arcade has struggled with tenancy and foot traffic compared to the bustling Adelaide Arcade nearby, Murphy said: “I think that Regent Arcade relies a little bit more heavily on the office worker foot traffic coming through there.”

“So obviously with working from home conditions in place over the last couple of years and just general flexibility changing for office workers has meant that that demographic doesn’t exist as much for Regent Arcade.

“So this is an opportunity for Renew Adelaide to sort of change what that demographic is as to who we can bring through.”

Renew Adelaide is conducting a staged rollout of the eight vacant spaces it has on offer in Regent Arcade, with the first three – Shop 9, Shop 12 and Shop 29 – opening for inspections next week.

Shop 9, located in the centre of the arcade, is ideally suited to a hospitality activation and weekday lunch service, while Shop 12 and 29 would be better suited to a retail venture, according to Renew Adelaide.

Among the vacant spaces that will eventually become available are Veggie Vie’s former space in the centre of the arcade along with Larry & Ladd’s old space on the Grenfell St side of the arcade.

Murphy said the eight activations available did not represent the total amount of available space in Regent Arcade.

“The reason that we’ve just started with eight is because those others that are vacant are still being used as storage from some of the other tenants,” she said.

“Additionally, there might be some sort of changes or some existing commercial conversations going on with direct with owner and third parties, so we’re just leaving those vacancies alone for the moment and just focusing on those that don’t have any other commercial interest in them.”

The last state budget saw the state government give Renew Adelaide $450,000 in funding over three years to double its program capacity.

Renew Adelaide, previously solely funded by the Adelaide City Council, says it has more than 430 business ventures in its database “ready to launch” once an appropriate space becomes available.

Regent Arcade opened in 1928 as Regent Theatre, a grand cinema which had seats for more than 2200 patrons.

The theatre was downsized in 1967 and partially transformed into a shopping arcade until the smaller cinema was completely shut down in 2004.