Other business owners, including Therese Kite from Impressions Giftware in Tarwin Street, said radical plans such as six months' free rent for new businesses wanting to start in the Morwell town centre should be introduced to help fill some of the empty shops.

``Of course it (empty shops) is concerning,'' Ms Kite said.

``Someone has to approach businesses...and encourage them to come in.''

Business owners have told The Express some shops could be leased for less than $100 per week in the CBD.

Advance Morwell vice president Graeme Sennett admitted the Morwell town centre was not ideally positioned to be the retail hub it once was but believes there are other options for it.

``A lot of people have a misplaced expectation that Morwell can become a retail hub again and it certainly may not,'' he said.

``It's more of a commercial service centre, the types of operations that are here drive certain types of retail premises, coffee shops, cafes, hairdressers and the things we use in our lunch breaks.

``People have this expectation that you can turn the clock back, but you can't, Morwell doesn't lend itself to a compact retail environment.''

He said some businesses had found their niche in the Morwell town centre.

Mr Sennett was a member of the CBD Revitalisation Taskforce from its initiation in 1999 until it ended in 2005 and said it had always been intended as a long-term project.

He said it had ``been an excellent initiative'' which had paid off.

``Certainly the initiative of pulling together a CBD revitalisation taskforce provided the structure and overall development for Morwell,'' Mr Sennett said.

``It has led to improvements and private developments that potentially wouldn't have happened (in Morwell).

``It set a plan to do some of that development and put some significant infrastructure in place.''

Mr Sennett said Morwell could be an attractive option for investors, as the prices were generally lower than in some neighbouring towns, there were lots of sites for development and the right infrastructure had been established.

``If you put that infrastructure into place, the rest will follow when commercial demands and market pressures require it,'' he said.

Latrobe City chief executive officer Paul Buckley also believes there are opportunities for an increase in business in the Morwell town centre.

He said infrastructure was in place and this was often a catalyst that attracted businesses to a town.

Mr Buckley said up to 400 additional people were working in the Morwell CBD each day as a result of developments initiated by the taskforce.

``Certainly my view is that there has been a significant increase in activity in the CBD since the development of the justice precinct, council offices and a range of other projects,'' he said.

``I think it has made a significant difference and I think there is probably an opportunity for businesses in the CBD to revise their business strategies in being able to take advantage of additional people working within the CBD.''

Mr Buckley said council's economic development team was available to assist businesses that wanted to start up in the municipality but existing businesses also needed to be proactive to help the situation.

``Businesses can sit back and wait for someone else to take on the activities to (encourage new business) to the town or they band together and talk about joint approaches and campaigns,'' he said.

``The public sector can only do so much, after that it's about making sure the businesses here take advantage of that investment. Now it's about the businesses being prepared to make the most of that and review business plans and think about joint approaches (to encourage people to the town).''