Minister takes on neglected centre Labuan Square’s ‘back in business’

Andrew Mathieson
A BAPTIST minister is behind a push to revitalise a rundown Norlane shopping strip.
Labuan Square’s grubby facade had for years attracted regular break-ins, holds-ups and drug deals, forcing shop owners to protect property with roller doors that became magnets for graffiti vandals.
But an organisation running a fresh alfresco cafe and a new retailer of recycled clothing for children has a greater purpose beyond just making dollars and cents in Labuan Square.
Minister Brent Lyons said charity provider cafe Urban Seed was developing a “social enterprise” to ultimately use any profits to fund free meals for struggling nearby families.
“We realise our organisation could take on a risk by opening the shop like this in the square,” he said.
“If anyone purely did this for profit, it just wouldn’t work at this stage but we’re looking at the bigger picture; to increase business in the area and to get people out of that generational poverty cycle.”
Mr Lyons said his Norlane Baptist Church was already forced to run four free breakfasts and a Monday community evening meal each week to meet demand among disadvantaged residents.
Urban Seed would also become a training base for unemployed and “disenfranchised” residents in the area, he said.
The cafe opened in December, with a Zero 2 Four recycled clothing shop beginning business at the rear of the premises earlier this month.
Mr Lyons hoped the facelift would breathe new life into Labuan Square.
“When I came here a lot of the old ladies were saying that Labuan Square was the place to be and it was really good but when I got here it was just all full of roller doors.”
Mr Lyons said rates of violent incidents had slowly dropped since the shopfront was opened.
“I have heard stories in the past of what goes on with break-ins, so there was a risk doing it but we’ve kept it pretty low key,” he said.
“We did get held up in the first few weeks and we were expecting that sort of stuff but we certainly wouldn’t let that defeat us at this stage.”