Just four years ago, Canberra’s northside industrial hub, Mitchell, was in a tough spot.

Many months of light rail construction along Flemington Road rendered the precinct practically inaccessible and saw longstanding businesses experience revenue drops exceeding 80 per cent.

Four years on and Mitchell’s recovery is well under way; a shiny new light rail stop at the Sanford Street intersection embodies the suburb’s changing fortunes.

As a result, new businesses are popping up, attracted to affordable rents and the suburb’s central North Canberra location.

Bigger employers that have since established include Canberra Metro’s light rail depot and drone delivery service Wing, while a host of small businesses have moved into Mitchell.

After spending two years cutting hair at a Civic barbershop, Italian-born barber Alexander Mantari took a bet on himself in late 2020 and set up Alexander’s Original Barbershop.

Mr Mantari told Canberra Daily he was inspired to go to Mitchell due to a lack of competition in a growing region.

“Mitchell is growing, a lot of people want to move in here now because of the proximity to the suburbs,” he said.

Initially bringing over some clients from Civic, he has since become known in Mitchell and now caters to a lot of the tradies working in the area.

Having been opened for less than 12 months and earning less than $75,000 a year rendered Mr Mantari’s business ineligible for COVID-19 business support during the recent ACT lockdown.

That put him in a bind with rent to pay on the commercial unit he operates out of, in addition to personal expenses outside of work.

“It just emptied my bank account,” he said, “I saved, saved, saved and then flip flop, it’s gone.”

“It affects everything; it affects your relationships, your brain, paying the bills, the rent … It was the first time in my life taking anti-depressants, I couldn’t sleep.”

Since reopening, business has slowly been building back up.

“Canberra has been good to me,” Mr Mantari said. “It’s been rough, though; another lockdown and I’d close the shop.”

Mitchell rent ‘pretty great’ for VR escape room business

VR escape room business Metaphysica was established in Mitchell mid-2020, the founders attracted to the precinct because they could secure a decent amount of floorspace in a central location for modest rent.

“The rent for this place is pretty great,” lead programmer Stephen Shorrock said.

“The other thing we had to find was somewhere we could put in these two rooms … We had to set all this up and we needed an empty space to do it.”

Artist and animator Jack Erskine said being in VR has worked relatively well for them during the pandemic.

“Something we got really lucky with was that as far as the activities you can go out and do, we’re pretty COVID-safe,” he said.

Having closed over lockdown, Mr Shorrock was optimistic a big holiday season would see them return to similar trade they experienced pre-lockdown.

“We’ve got the holidays coming up and last year Christmas was ridiculous,” he said.

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