Big Plans For Old Farmers Building: Out of Town Retailers Interested

Several big chain retailers are interested in moving South to establish their businesses in the old Farmers building – but no tenants have been confirmed yet.

Rumours have been going around town that JB-HiFi and Chemist Warehouse are moving into the department store, but building owner Gaire Thompson said he was still working with a range of retailers on different options – and one of those was a pharmacy.

Thompson Property Group owns and operates commercial office buildings, car parking facilities, residential buildings, as well as industrial and retail properties throughout the country.

Gaire’s company also bought the Invercargill Railway Station in September last year, and sold the Menzies Building to local businessman Geoff Thomson for a 4.5 star hotel.

He said, when contacted, that a lot was happening with the future of the Farmers Building, and all but one of the interested tenants was from out of town.

“We’re in a state of flux at the moment and trying to figure out how to fit all of the interested parties in.”

At one stage there were 12 big retailers showing interest and several smaller ones, but he was currently working with several to establish which area of the department store they were interested in tenanting.

Naturally, everyone wanted to be downstairs on the ground floor and right near the front door, he said.  One of the big advantages for customers was the free parking right outside.

“We’re trying to meet their various requirements for space, and if some are happy with being upstairs then it will be a lot easier.”

A lot of work would still need to be done internally to fit out the space, including a new internal passenger lift, new flooring and dividing up all of the areas for the different tenants.

“Once we get those floor plans worked out we can start working away on that.”

“There’s quite a bit of money going into it, but we’ll be using the existing air conditioning throughout so that’s a bonus.”