Murray Crane: Crane Brothers founder commits to another 25-years on High Street

The high street tailor "Crane Brothers" has been a fixture on the street for years - and it will remain so for even longer.

Murray Crane - the man behind the business - has signed to keep the business in it's current location for another 25 years. 

He told Heather du Plessis-Allan, "[on High Street] we're seeing tenancies being refilled and leases being signed."

Crane said that despite the CBD's post-COVID drop in footfall, he's confident in his decision to stay put.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Thomas Coglan will wrap the political week that wasn't Gavin
Grays with us out of the UK at seven past six. Now,
not everyone is down about the future of Auckland CBD.
Well known Taylor Crane Brothers has been a fixture on
High Street for twenty six years and so committed they've
just signed for another twenty five years now. Murray Crane
is the man behind Crane Brothers.

Speaker 2 (00:17):
Hi Murray, Hi head, how are you this evening?

Speaker 1 (00:21):
I'm very well, thank you. So what is it that
you're seeing in the CBD that others may be arn't.

Speaker 2 (00:28):
Well? I think it definitely helps that I'm pretty close
to being here every day, so that is my daily
kind of mute to get here in the morning and
be here most of the day. So I definitely see
a lot of people with businesses who are seeing positive
growth and are trying new things and there's a return

(00:50):
to people coming back. I think, you know, COVID really
did knock the CBD for six and on top of that,
we had a lot of people working from home and
the numbers of the number of people coming into the
city reduced dramatically. But we're definitely seeing that tide turning

(01:11):
reasonably slowly, but it is turning that all the numbers
seem to be pointing in the right direction, which is great.
And in particularly where we are in High Street, we're
seeing tendencies being refilled and lease is being signed and
people looking for space. So it feels like we're definitely
on the front flop, right.

Speaker 1 (01:30):
That's good to hear. And I know you've been pretty
positive actually because you you I've been getting text on
the show from you a fair bit actually calling us
out for being too negative about the CBD. So all
of that, do you think that the stuff that the
kind of the general narrative about there being too much
crime and too many too many you know, I guess

(01:51):
troublemakers in the CBD, and and too many road cones
not enough for traffic. All of that is kind of
is not true story, is that what you're saying.

Speaker 2 (02:00):
Wouldn't say it's not a true story, but I would
say that I don't think it's any worse than any
other anywhere else in the world, and probably not as
bad as any other part of New Zealand, given if
you look at the spread of crime, I mean it
is a large, bustling CBD and I think some of
that narrative is kind of a selfish something prophecy, you know,

(02:22):
keep saying that things are bad, you just believe that
they are bad. I mean, it's not perfect, but I
think there's definitely been a large reduction in crime and
a large reduction in just general kind of unrest in
the city as parts of the city begin to kind

(02:45):
of flourish and become active again. What we tend to
find with rough leapers and vagrancy is that they really
don't want to be around areas where there's lots of people.
They tend to want to go to parts of the
city that very quiet so they can kind of be.

Speaker 1 (03:02):
Left alone, basically pushes them out.

Speaker 2 (03:04):
Yeah, so as the city becomes busy, we're seeing we're
seeing that move, which is why we're having these issues.
We've also had a big clamp down on retail crime
and new market which has kind of pushed that element
to other places as it's become as I've become more
aware of what's happening there. So it's a bit of

(03:26):
a moving target, but I don't think it's ever going
to go away. However, well, it's placed in however busy
or quiet when you go to a city like London,
which is incredibly busy and incredibly bustling, and there's just
as much crime because because of the scare volume of people.
So you kind of damned if you do, and you're
damn if you don't.

Speaker 1 (03:46):
Really, you guys have a store on Ponsby Road, don't you?

Speaker 2 (03:49):
Yes, we do.

Speaker 1 (03:49):
So did you see that piece that was around earlier
this week suggesting Ponsonby Road is possibly dying? What do
you think of that?

Speaker 2 (03:58):
I think there's some there's definitely some truths and that
having been up there now for a few years and
then having had stores there in the past as well,
and I think I think that's partly symptomatic of just
a changing demographic of Ponsonby as well house prices, the

(04:20):
age of people living there. It's it's definitely feels like
it's lost some of its edge and I think.

Speaker 1 (04:27):
Is it becoming a bit bas.

Speaker 2 (04:29):
There's a lot of empty spaces, that's a land I
think there's a disconnection there with with what what the
people that live there wanting and what's available. Right, there's
still some great stores.

Speaker 1 (04:40):
Is the is the empty space is not a landlord problem?

Speaker 2 (04:44):
Uh? Well, our land has been incredibly proactive with us so,
but he is I mean they are quite a large
land landowner on Ponsonby Road, so they may be in
a slightly different position to some other ones. I mean
there's definitely pressure on landlords the same way there has
been on house house buyers and house owners. They have

(05:06):
the same challenges the business owners as well, and they
have challenges that if they've got borrowing on their buildings,
they need to be meeting their covenants I guess with
the banks. So yes, it's challenging for everyone.

Speaker 1 (05:20):
Murray listen, good to talk to you, thank you and
best of luck for the next twenty five years. It's
Murray Crane of Crane Brothers. For more from Heather Duplessy
Alan Drive, Listen live to news Talks. It'd be from
four pm weekdays, or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio.