The HW Richardson Group have acquired two further Invercargill city centre buildings, with the recent purchase of the former ASB building at 63 Esk St and the building at 42 Tay St, which currently housed Art Fun Wear.
Speaking to whatsoninvers.nz today (April 26) Group director and Property arm CEO Scott O’Donnell confirmed the Invercargill-based company have acquired the two buildings, reconfirming the Group’s desire of investing in the future of Invercargill, and putting their “money where their mouth is”.
Mr O’Donnell said the Esk St building, currently tenanted by an antiques dealer, was in quite good shape and in a good location.
“It’s reasonably modern and something could go into that [Esk St] building reasonably quickly,” he said.
While there were no immediate plans for the two buildings, Mr O’Donnell said in the long-term, with the collaborative CBD rejuvenation projects in mind, the whole block could come down in the future.
He supported the rejuvenation of the city centre and said a number of the buildings are “tired and buggered’’ and the city centre needed to become more vibrant to have people returning to it.
“Most other centres have the big box shops like Farmers and The Warehouse on the outskirts of the city centre – so we need to revitalise the city centre. And that will mean pulling down old and dated buildings, that have no architectural value, they need to come down. Build something that is simple and new.’’
He supported the Invercargill Licensing Trust’s (ILT) recent announcement of building a $40 million hotel on the corner of Dee and Don St and confirmed he has spoken to ILT general manager Greg Mulvey about the development and has offered to help with ideas.
“I have been very open with Greg [Mulvey] about the hotel development. With SoRDS [Southland Regional Development Strategy] identifying three areas in Stage 1 of increasing the city’s vibrancy; Motorcycle Mecca – tick; hotel – tick; and the ICC working on the art gallery/museum concepts – well that will be happening very soon too.
“I think the Invercargill CBD needed a good quality hotel and I congratulate the ILT for doing it. This hotel is a great chance for the ILT to do something special and make it a tourist attraction in its self.’’
Mr O’Donnell believed the CBD was experiencing a vicious cycle and a good covered city car park could ease the strain on parking, and change the mentality of Invercargill people being renowned for wanting to park outside shop doors.
“With a good under cover car park and nearby quality attractions, people would use it. Then they would walk around town, go out for lunch, shop and visit the movies. We need to get things done to increase the foot traffic.
“And I have said it before the council need to help get the place going. People have spent a huge amount of time building the momentum and the time is right for the council to ride the wave of positivity and get a great outcome for the city.’’