What we do

Special Rate and Charge Scheme

The CMSTA represents the retail and business operators within the Croydon Main Street precinct, which includes Main St, Hewish Rd, Mt Dandenong Rd, Centreway Arcade, Thomas Brew Lane and Lacey St.

The precinct incorporates about 180 businesses, with a mix of traders across general retail, hospitality, and professional service-based businesses.

The CMSTA operates under a centre-coordinated marketing and business development program funded by a special rate, to which all properties in the centre contribute.

The Special Rate and Charge Scheme (SRCS) is an agreement between the Maroondah City Council and the Croydon Main Street Traders Association (CMSTA) to raise funds to achieve key goals of the association, including marketing, promotions, and events.

The SRCS is reviewed and renewed every five years. As part of the renewal process, the CMSTA must present a survey to the council, providing written support from at least 50 per cent of the local businesses.

All businesses within the Croydon Main Street precinct have enjoyed the benefits of the scheme since the early 1990s, which have contributed to Croydon’s transformation into a vibrant and thriving neighbourhood.

The special rate is calculated on a tiered system:

• Primary beneficiary contributor: a special charge of $487.65 per annum per primary beneficiary contributor with ground floor frontages to Main St (unless otherwise stated)
• Secondary beneficiary contributor: a special charge of $243.83 per annum for all secondary beneficiaries, defined as ground floor properties without frontages to Main St and those located on Mt Dandenong Rd, Thomas Brew Lane, Hewish Rd, San Carlos Walk, Hewmart Arcade, Lacey St and Centreway Arcade, and properties located between and including 12 to 44 – 48 Main St.
• Tertiary beneficiary contributor: a special charge of $121.91 per annum for all third-tier beneficiaries, defined as all first-floor properties.

A further rate per contributor is also charged, based on .000541987 cents in the dollar of the CIV of the rated property.

All businesses within the Croydon Main Street precinct have enjoyed the benefits of the scheme since the early 1990s, which have contributed to Croydon’s transformation into a vibrant and thriving neighbourhood.

The Tenancy Mix of Traders

With about 180 businesses located within the levied area, the Croydon Main Street precinct comprises a diverse retail and business mix.
We have a lot of food businesses (currently accounts for almost 20 per cent of all businesses), as well as general retail, several real estate agents, and hairdressers.

The tenancy mix is currently seeing a shift towards more professional service-based businesses in the health and wellness sector, including medical practices, optometrists and audiologists, psychology services, massage clinics, and Pilates studios.

In terms of the demographics of average shoppers in Croydon Main Street, it has typically been an elderly customer, of retirement age.
But more recently, we have noticed a fairly rapid shift towards middle-aged people and young families who are moving into the area. With five primary schools in the Croydon area, it’s not entirely surprising to notice this trend of young families shopping in the precinct.

There are also more apartment buildings currently being built in the area, so I expect we’ll continue to see this shift towards a growing younger demographic, with young couples and young singles being the next emerging demographic.

Marketing activities run for Croydon Main Street

In an ordinary year, without COVID-19 restrictions, our biggest event to promote the precinct is our Father’s Day Classic Car Show. It began in 2015 and has been one of the most popular events in our annual calendar. As the name suggests, there are a range of classic cars on show, and this is complemented by a reptile petting zoo, face painting, children’s craft workshops, and dance performances. In 2019, a rock ‘n’ roll live band and live superheroes were a great addition to the program, which attracted more than 1,500 visitors. In 2022 we have started a Multicultural Burmese Festival which brings 1000s to the precint.

In the past we have also put on the Christmas Pet Parade, where people bring their dogs to the precinct dressed in Christmas costumes for a fun parade, we also have an Easter Egg hunt during Easter celebrations.  We’ve also have an active school holidays program, which often draws in 100 – 600 children per event and includes pony rides, LEGO workshops, scavenger hunts, cartoonists and a kids disco.

For Christmas we have held a Christmas shop window decorating competition for our traders. Traders decorate their windows and the public votes for their favourite window for a chance to win great prizes. Over the month of December, we run ‘photos with Santa’ with Croydon Camera House, which gives our community an affordable way to get quality family photos with Santa. This activity is complemented by live music from a local brass band and carols from school choirs to add to the festive atmosphere. We also managed to get our local Men’s Shed on board  over the years they have made a big Santa’s chair, so that has been a nice way to collaborate with another community group.

With the advent of the internet and digital communications, CMSTA’s marketing efforts have naturally shifted to incorporate more of a focus on digital activities over the past decade. Social media is big component for us now and is an important way for us to communicate directly with customers who have questions about our stores.

We also send out regular email newsletters to our database of 5,000+ subscribers with news and updates from the precinct.

How we work with Council and Local Community groups?

We work very closely with Maroondah City Council to stay up to date on council-led initiatives and any cross-promotional opportunities for local businesses. It’s important that our activities are aligned and work to compliment each other so we can get the best outcomes for our precinct.

The CMSTA also collaborates with and supports local community groups. For example, we have been working closely with Croydon Football Club, where we have been invited to attend their weekly training and dinner events and get to speak to the football club community about Croydon Main Street. We update them on any news or current promotions taking place in the precinct, as well as any specials on offer at specific stores that may be of interest to them.

To ensure the partnership is mutually beneficial, we support the football club with a sponsorship from Croydon Main Street. We have recently asked them to join us on Main Street with a fundraising barbecue that Collins Booksellers was hosting in the precinct, and we are also looking at other ways we can cross-collaborate.

As Croydon is such a community-focused area, these types of partnerships are important for us to not only continue driving community connection but also to create meaningful relationships that can be leveraged into the future.

We also work closely with Maroondah Business Group, we catch up on a monthly basis to collaborate and learn about local Community news and development in the Maroondah Area.

 

 

 

 

Grants

One of the main benefits of being incorporated as the CMSTA is being able to apply for various grants from local and state governments. To date, we have achieved the following:

• We successfully applied for and received $435,000 to upgrade 14 existing cameras within our precinct and install seven new cameras in the Croydon Town Centre and Croydon Park
• The Croydon Connects project has created a well-lit and attractive link from Croydon railway station to Croydon Civic Centre and Swinburne TAFE
• We won an arts grant from the Croydon Historical Public Art Project, which was spent on the installation of ‘The Fruit Thief’ at 109 Main Street, an interactive and historical public artwork
• We received $3,725 from the Multicultural Commission to assist with the organisation of the 2019 Croydon Multicultural Festival.
• We received $7,200.00 Grant from Multicultural Commission to help celebrate the 2022 National Chin Day Festival.
• We received $50,000 from Business Victoria the Business Chambers and Traders Groups Grant. Which enabled an upgrade to the Croydon Main Street website, workshop and training for traders and a music event after lockdown.
• We received $20,000 from Victoria State Government for the SME program. Which enabled a great Celebrating Superheroes Fathers Day Celebration to include the entire street for Fathers Day 2023.