There are good reasons why councils should stay out of commercial development and becoming landlords rather than being the conduit to assisting those prepared to make the investment. And this is one of those times when the water gets murky when the council as landlord is working to attract tenants from places where other private landlords are paying the same council commercial rates.
In every business decision there should be somewhere where the buck stops but with councils that doesn't happen. How many times do we hear of cost over runs and the old adage, we just have to move on and learn from our mistakes. Businesses can't do that.
It is a hard one because something needed to happen in our CBD after years of poor town planning going away back to letting the Warehouse set up out of the then recognised shopping area and we are still seeing a fragmented approach to the big picture CBD planning that is needed. H&Js will leave another big hole and if the city centre group attract tenants from along Dee Street to the north we will end up with a nice inner city with an empty looking surrounding.
Its a little like the proposal to develop Donovan Park on the outskirts of the now residential area while the housing stock closer to town ages and with nothing being done.
We once had a company set up called Invercargill Properties Ltd by the council and many councilors of the time did very nicely out of becoming directors and squeezing money out of it but that now seems to have become redundant. At the very least the council should be producing financial reports that the ratepayers as shareholders can peruse, for any commercial enterprise they invest public monies into.
There are good reasons why councils should stay out of commercial development and becoming landlords rather than being the conduit to assisting those prepared to make the investment. And this is one of those times when the water gets murky when the council as landlord is working to attract tenants from places where other private landlords are paying the same council commercial rates.
In every business decision there should be somewhere where the buck stops but with councils that doesn't happen. How many times do we hear of cost over runs and the old adage, we just have to move on and learn from our mistakes. Businesses can't do that.
It is a hard one because something needed to happen in our CBD after years of poor town planning going away back to letting the Warehouse set up out of the then recognised shopping area and we are still seeing a fragmented approach to the big picture CBD planning that is needed. H&Js will leave another big hole and if the city centre group attract tenants from along Dee Street to the north we will end up with a nice inner city with an empty looking surrounding.
Its a little like the proposal to develop Donovan Park on the outskirts of the now residential area while the housing stock closer to town ages and with nothing being done.
We once had a company set up called Invercargill Properties Ltd by the council and many councilors of the time did very nicely out of becoming directors and squeezing money out of it but that now seems to have become redundant. At the very least the council should be producing financial reports that the ratepayers as shareholders can peruse, for any commercial enterprise they invest public monies into.
Best move farmers made