Arcade springs to life

CRANBOURNE alleyway traders say business is now thriving in an arcade that has been renowned as dormant and empty.
Traders say it is exciting to see shops filling the Balla Centre on High Street, which they say has had a reputation as being a “dead end” in town.
Lachlan MacKay recently opened his shop, Earth’s Treasures, in the arcade and said the premises had not had a phone connected for about 10 years.
“Ever since I’ve lived here it (the arcade) has been a dead end and I was really worried about taking a shop in here,” Mr MacKay said. “Now people are coming through and constantly stopping…it’s just brilliant.”
Another new trader to the arcade, Vince DeStefano from Kiddie Snaps, said there appeared to be more shoppers perusing the arcade in the past few months as more shops were leased.
“It’s always been considered pretty dull, but now there seems to be more people coming through. The other traders are happy about it. They had an empty arcade for so long,” Mr DeStefano said.
Traders had endeavoured to market their businesses by putting signs out the front of the arcade and encouraged shoppers to come and check it out if they had not already, Mr DeStefano said.