It’s a shiny new city - with bald spots
Thursday, 22 February 2024
Central Christchurch is like a beloved pet recovering from severe fur loss - it’s grown back new and glossy, but stubborn bald patches remain.
On the 13th earthquake anniversary, the city’s recovery has delivered fancy new precincts and buildings, walking and cycling paths and play areas, redesigned streets, and a parade of new apartments and townhouses.
Alongside sit vacant sections with weeds, damaged buildings awaiting rescue, and construction projects that seem to drag on.
Mayor Phil Mauger says people revisiting say “wow look at how much you’ve done”, but for residents here every day, things don’t happen fast enough.
He said he initially doubted the 2012 rebuild blueprint, with its reshaped central city and anchor projects, could work.
“And it is working. You can walk from here to here, and it’s really taking shape. And that’s why there are people moving down to Christchurch, because it is good.”
He agreed some people had probably been too harsh on then rebuild minister Gerry Brownlee, and those early decisions “turned out to be very good”.
“You have to have someone to make the decision to do it, otherwise you spend the rest of your life talking about it.”
Anchor projects
This year sees a lull in delivery of publicly funded anchor projects, with Te Kaha stadium and Parakiore pool and sports centre still works in progress.
Te Kaha’s stands are taking spectacular shape, and the roof supports are already going in. It is forecast to be finished in mid-2026.
There is less certainty with Parakiore, scheduled for a 2025 opening. Contractors CPB want more money and time from the Crown to complete the facility.
Closer to a milestone is the performing arts precinct, where the Court Theatre’s new building should be finished in December and open about this time next year. The council is still negotiating use of the bare lot next door after ruling out selling it to Wilson Parking.
Housing continues going into the east frame. Fletcher Living are finishing the Carriage Quarter block on Manchester St, while building at Gloucester Green just north of Latimer Sq. Williams Corporation have begun their Manchester Square block on Manchester St.
At the Health precinct, Otago University is well above ground on its new $178m, six-storey campus building.
Hotels and offices
On the old Regent theatre site on the corner of Cathedral Square and Worcester Bvd, the Carter Group’s new office building is nearly finished. Tenants will include law firms Buddle Findlay and Anderson Lloyd.
The Carter Group has also started working on an office and retail building on the former Holiday Inn site on the High-Cashel corner.
Huadu international is looking for retail, office and hospitality tenants as they renovate their eight-storey former IRD building on the corner of Cashel and Madras streets.
On Tuam St behind the Justice precinct, development company Tuam OS GCO Ltd is planning a new four-storey office building.
The long-awaited restoration of the former Rydges Hotel should happen after owners Emmons Developments settled their insurance. The old parking and retail building next door is being demolished now.
Work on a new hotel planned for the Cashel-Manchester corner could start late this year. About a dozen other sites earmarked for new hotels remain bare, as owners wait for the right time to build.
Heritage buildings
Finishing touches are being made on stonework at the old Trinity Church on the corner of Manchester and Worcester streets. The restored building has been operating for a few months as The Church bar and music venue.
The council-owned old Municipal building, now under repair, should reopen mid-year. Nearby the old Provincial Chambers remain mothballed.
Owner Ceres NZ has made little progress on its development plans for the Victoria Mansions building on Victoria St and the stone Peterborough complex opposite.
The Grand hospitality complex looks promising in the old Post Central Office but is chasing funds and yet to open.
The New City Hotel building has new owners with new plans. They want to restore and reopen it as offices with ground floor retail and hospitality.
Work has slowed on the Anglican Christ Church Cathedral site while designs and prices are determined for the repair. A report with details is expected in April.
The site of a new Catholic Cathedral remains unknown after the diocese opted to reconsider the location. The intended site was riverside land opposite Victoria Square.
Other heritage buildings yet to be restored include the mothballed old Provincial chambers, the old Odeon theatre, and the engineering block at the Arts Centre.
The Dirty 30 list of problematic sites has halved. Most still listed have a plan in place, but three remain untouched - the former Blue Jean Cuisine, 2 Fat Indians, and PWC buildings.
- With additional reporting by Tina Law.
Correction: Parakiore/metro sports facility contractors CPB want more money and time from the Crown to complete the facility, not from the city council. (Amended 8.36am, February 22, 2024)