Invercargill CBD block demolition halted

Tuesday, 31 December 2019

Artist impression of the HWCP Development of the Invercargill CBD inner city block, Tay, Dee, Esk and Kelvin streets.

Planned demolition to start a multi-million dollar Invercargill central business development will not go ahead on Monday because of court action.

HWCP director Scott O'Donnell on Tuesday confirmed the demolition would not start.

Invercargill retail property owner Gaire Thompson making a submission to the Hearing Commissioner Lawyer John Maassen conducting the resource consent hearing for HWCP Management Ltds estimated $190 million inner city development in Invercargill.

Property manager Gaire Thompson, who's been vocal in his opposition to the project, filed an interim injunction filed in the High Court at Invercargill last week.

O'Donnell said a court hearing would be held on January 21 and he expected to start demolition after that.

In the meantime, some non-demolition work would still go ahead as planned from Monday.

Thompson has applied to judicially review decisions by the Invercargill City Council not to notify an application by HWCP to vary the conditions of resource consents for the demolition, alteration and development of a block, and to grant that application.

He was concerned regarding the change in the finance clause and the likely affect that it was likely to have on ratepayers, and the council's decision to agree to it and not doing sufficient due diligence as to the terms and conditions and how they propose to meet the short fall, he said.

One of the varied changes is that HWCP no longer has to provide the council with written confirmation from a registered bank that funding for stages 1-3 of the development had been obtained before proceeding.

Thompson owns the Invercargill buildings leased by the Warehouse, Farmers, Smiths City, and Noel Leeming, as well as the Cue and Menzies buildings.

He had previously told Stuff that he was concerned the CBD project would create more vacant retail and office space, adding to the existing surplus.

Farmers will be moving from Thompson's building to become an anchor tenant in the new development.

Thompson did not appeal the development during the15 working day period for appeals when resource consent for the project was granted in June, 2019.

In a letter to The Southland Times in December, architect building co-ordinator Bob Simpson said he and a group of concerned submitters chose not to appeal the resource consent because they did not want to delay the decision.

Simpson argued that the current proposal is different to the one that was agreed upon in June and called for an urgent public meeting.

He said five equity partners had been reduced to two, capital and the size of the building had been reduced and fewer tenants had been confirmed.

'Bob can have as many opinions as he likes,' O'Donnell responded, 'but they are only opinions.'

O'Donnell confirmed there had been amendments to the original resource consent but that had already been changed and been in place for sometime.

He is confident that demolition will begin soon after the court hearing.

It is not the first time Thompson, who is also a prominent businessman in Nelson, has sought legal action to halt a development.

In 2011, the Nelson City Council lost its fight to upgrade Montgomery Square car park in time for the Rugby World Cup.

The High Court ruled that the Nelson council had failed to properly consult with the public and issued an order prohibiting the council from accepting tenders to carry out the work and directed the council to undertaken appropriate consultation before any work was started.

Thompson and Nelson lawyer John Fitchett had sought a judicial review of the council's plans for the $1.5m car park upgrade and told the High Court that council staff had 'hijacked beautification plans for Montgomery Square'.