MotorPit owner Greg Penaluna will celebrate 30 years in Noble Park’s Ian Street shopping strip next year, but hopes the precinct can return to its popularity heyday.By Shaun Inguanzo
GREG Penaluna will celebrate his 30th year of trading in Noble Park’s Ian Street next year and is optimistic the ailing shopping strip will return to its heyday of popularity.
Mr Penaluna owns the MotorPit, a quaint shopfront which stocks one of the largest and most diverse ranges of spare car parts in Melbourne.
The shop has been in Ian Street since 1976, when Mr Penaluna combined his passion with a career choice.
“We are quite general, we are not like a dealership where they specialise in certain makes and models of cars.
“We do anything that moves,” he said, highlighting engine oil, oil filters and spark plugs as his main sellers.
Over the years, Mr Penaluna has built a strong client base, and his knowledge and service draws customers from Cranbourne and Endeavour Hills, who Mr Penaluna said had to pass several other shops to get to his.
Ian Street has been the subject of a recent trader push for revitalisation, including signage to indicate there are shops along the street.
Mr Penaluna said despite his 30 years in the one location, Noble Park residents still did not know his shop existed.
“It could hinder trade because the fact is it’s not on a main thoroughfare,” he said.
“Speaking to people in the area, a lot of people in Noble Park don’t know Ian Street exists.
“I had a bloke come in, and he asked me how long I had been here.
“When I said 30 years, he said ‘God, I’ve been here all my life and didn’t know you were here’.”
Mr Penaluna welcomed a Greater Dandenong council suggestion that residential premises be built atop each shopfront, creating a reason for people to shop in Ian Street.
But he said he still had questions about the idea’s impact on business ownership.
“It wouldn’t bother me, but I still want to retain my rights to the bit of the building on the bottom floor,” he said.
Mr Penaluna said traders were working with the council to improve Ian Street’s situation.
He reflected on its heyday during the late 1970s and ’80s.
“Ian Street was a lot different. It had a licensed supermarket, had an insurance broker, had a fruit shop, had a miniature department store – it was a shopping hub,” he said.
“Back in the early days, after 5pm, people came off the trains and (the street) was pretty lively.”
Meanwhile, Mr Penaluna will gear up for the shop’s 30th birthday, which he says will happen in June.
For the 53-year-old, there is still plenty of mileage left before he considers retirement.
“I don’t really talk about that. I have got two sons but they have gone in other directions,” he said.
“I will reassess things in about five years.”
