Heretaunga House, a casualty of earthquake standards, owned by HDC and formerly occupied by council staff and other tenants, will be ‘deconstructed’ (i.e., demolished, with as much of the building as possible repurposed or recycled).
The three-story building, opposite council headquarters, was found to meet only 15% of the standard. Strengthening work was estimated to cost between $16m to $24m, whereas deconstruction is expected to cost $1m to $1.3 million.
It will be replaced temporarily by a carpark, while plans are developed for more glorious use of the large parcel of land it occupies.
Council is now seeking urban design advice on those possibilities. Council staff will come back to council in the first quarter of next year with urban design opportunities for future development of the site.
Hastings mayor Sandra Hazlehurst commented: “We have a huge opportunity here in terms of our revitalisation plan for the city centre – it’s 3000 square metres of land that could be significant for the likes of inner city living, office space, and carparking – it’s a potential showcase for our CBD revitalisation.”
Sounds like exciting possibilities ahead.
When will Hastings CBD have some good news west of the railroad?
to answer your question: when the folks on the hill have to go down to the town they don’t want to cross the tracks.
“significant for the likes of inner city living, office space, and carparking”. Wow, carparking. Just what we need to fight the climate crisis. Another carpark.
Such sad ancient ideas …a carpark !
How about an inner city vegetable and flowers garden allotments for innercity folk to garden and eat from ….with a lake ????
Gidday Breige…