OPINION: We have all seen the proposal for this city centre development potentially one of the biggest retail developments of an established city centre in New Zealand and this is all happening here in Southland thanks to HWCP. The project is going to include 1000 covered car parks, retail shops, medical centre, outdoor courtyards and office space.
Firstly you have to commend the ICC for thinking outside the box and stepping into a joint venture with HWR to form HWCP, this can only be seen as a positive venture and a big positive step for our inner city. If you look at the current state of the inner city, you can see this is well overdue for change. We need to stop the people of Southland making the 2-3 hour trip to go to Queenstown or maybe Dunedin to do their shopping, we need our city to be inviting, fresh, vibrant and modern and this project has all of that.
As a rate payer of the city there is likely to be a cost to all of us for this development and I fully support this venture and proposal. I want nothing more than to see this great city of ours be given a new lease of life for us to enjoy now and our kids and grandkids to enjoy later on.
With this development, along with K-Mart and the new ILT hotel development (The Langlands) Invercargill is going to have a point of difference and be inviting to all of us to come back into the town centre. Part of the Southland Regional Development Strategy (SoRDS) was to attract 10,000 people to the region by 2025 and all these developments will go a long way towards attracting these people here.
This is the time for positive change, this is the time for Invercargill to stand up and be noticed and we look forward to seeing this development happen very soon.
Scott Whitaker, Business Person in Invercargill