CBD Development Starting To Take Shape

Invercargill’s City Block development is racing ahead in leaps and bounds with precast walls starting to go up for the Farmers building and car park foundations being poured.

Invercargill Central Limited public relations manager Amy Hibbs said the vertical structure was underway with several 13-metre high panels now in place for the outside of the Farmers building.

The panels make up the two-floor structure of the building, with the first floor being six metres from ground level.

Further progress will be happening at the site in the next few weeks with large 15-metre high concrete pre-cast columns, weighing a massive 32,000kg each arriving from Balclutha for the car park.

A 70-metre crawler crane that is capable of lifting 400kg will be used to put the columns in place.

Amy said 380 cubic metres of concrete had also been poured to make up the floor slab of the car parking building.

The CBD block will eventually have a food and beverage precinct, apartments, offices and carparks.

Amalgamated Builders Ltd (ABL) has the construction contract for the $165 million project, which is expected to create up to 175 jobs for the city, and the development is expected to be completed by 2022.

The project is being divided into three stages with different teams working on each stage.

“It’s a huge milestone for the CBD project to have progress above the ground, it’s exciting to see.”