Invercargill Railway Station Getting a Makeover, New Name Needed For SIT Arcade

The old Invercargill Railway Station is getting a makeover, and new tenants have secured office space inside.

The building was bought by Nelson-based businessman Gaire Thompson in September 2021, who said today the roof, panels and front verandah were about to be painted.

There is still one good-sized office space available for lease, but the rest of the upstairs area had already been tenanted.

“We’re pretty full,” he said.

Work was still yet to be done downstairs before tenants could move in, and Thompson Property Group’s other commercial interest – the old Farmers Building, was also going through an internal transformation.

Gaire said they were trying to work in with what potential tenants wanted, and it might be that they have to take out the escalator.

Many businesses wanted the front downstairs space and it was a matter of trying to work around everyone’s various needs.

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

The company also recently bought the SIT arcade and will be looking at renaming it.

As a property owner of 33 Don St already, TPG is also currently working with a party that will take quite a bit of the ground floor of the three-storey building.

The Southern Institute of Technology owned the 25 Don St property since 2001, but no longer has any use for its downtown campus and will transfer the mall over to Thompson Property Group at the end of March.

Gaire said he was looking at getting more tenants in the empty shops to brighten the place up, and make it look more active.

The building will also be painted shortly, and he has put it out there to the public, to think up a new name for it.

“Anybody got any bright ideas? The building might need a more generalised name such as Commerce House,” he said.

Send your ideas to [email protected]