Councils
Right before the very first Covid-19 lockdown back in March 2020, the Invercargill City Council made a decision to demolish the old building at 66 Dee St next to the library.
The budgeted amount was $1.4 million, but prior to the meeting Nelson businessman Gaire Thompson offered to buy it from council for $1000, to save ratepayers the cost.
Thompson Property Group is one of New Zealand’s largest privately owned property investors that specialise in commercial and bulk retail leasing options.
The company owns the old Farmers building (soon to have a new name), along with the Invercargill Railway Station, and sold the Menzies Building to local businessman Geoff Thomson for a 4.5 star hotel last year.
66 Dee St had an insanitary notice on it for four years prior to it being demolished, and deputy Mayor Nobby Clark said you could smell the rot behind it when you walked past.
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It was reported at the time that council chief executive Clare Hadley decided the $1000 offer was not acceptable, considering the rateable value of the land.
“She was uncomfortable with it, and there was concern that he might demolish the building and land bank it,” Clark said.
So he went back to Thompson and asked him if he would invest money in trying to fix the old building, which he was happy to do.
“It was salvageable and we would’ve used local labour to do something with it,” Thompson said, when contacted this week.
The majority of councillors voted against the sale, with the exception of councillor Peter Kett and Clark, who are both still annoyed at what happened.
Clark said he understood the final demolition costs were around $1 million, and both he and Kett said that was a significant amount that could’ve reduced our rates by 2%.
“This was a really dumb decision by your elected members. You know who they are,” Kett said.
The council bought the building in 2012 – given it is situated beside the Invercargill Public Library.
The Whitcoulls bookstore chain vacated the building in the 1990s before the council leased the building in 2001 for three years for a youth drop-in centre.
Now all that stands there is a “bloody gaping hole,” according to Clark, with part of the remaining structure boarded up and walls still exposed.
“Now nobody has an interest in the land and in effect it is council that has land banked it,” he said.
Gaire, who also has a personal connection with the South as his ancestors were from Invercargill, believes the decision to demolish it was “an unbelievable waste of ratepayer money.”