What to do with missing piece in city block jigsaw?
"We want to throw it out and say, ‘hey, can it be a play area? can it be an outdoor art area? is it a green space?"
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The Invercargill City Council will next month ponder whether to sell or retain a vacant piece of land that is part of Invercargill Central Limited’s wider city block development.
The Southern Institute of Technology was initially planning to build apartments on the corner of Tay St and Kelvin St as part of that wider city block development, in which the Invercargill City Council is a key shareholder in.
Amalgamated Builders Ltd [ABL] had been appointed to carry out the build with construction initially earmarked for September 2020.
However, following the Government’s polytechnic merger, and a change of the board at SIT, the new board decided to scrap the planned apartments development.
It has meant the land on the corner of Tay St and Kelvin St has remained vacant while significant work in the remainder of the block had taken place.
At a council meeting on Tuesday, Invercargill mayor Nobby Clark said they were now faced with a decision as to whether to sell the land or retain it for strategic purposes.
It will be discussed at a council workshop next month.
There would be a cost to the council of retaining that land given there were also other shareholders in the mix.
“We’ve got a decision to either sell it - it doesn’t give us a huge amount of income if we do that, and [if we sell it] we may not have necessarily have too much control of what subsequently gets put into the space, and that’s another issue again.
“Or whether we hold it for strategic purposes and maybe five, 10 years down when we might want to build there ourselves for some reason. An art gallery, new council building, whatever.”
If the council was to retain the land Clark suggested it could be used for an urban play space in the interim.
“The feedback from our partner in the block was we don’t want a vacant space, it will become bloody ugly. So, we want to throw it out and say; ‘hey, can it be a play area? can it be an outdoor art area? is it a green space? Something that doesn’t cost us too much that can be taken down if and when we need the land.”
Cr Ian Pottinger did not believe it would make for a great public space given surrounding buildings blocked out the sun.
Cr Alex Cracket was keen for more play places to be included in the city but acknowledged it might be found that the vacant space was not the best place.
Cr Alan Arnold also agreed with Pottinger, in regard to the site being surrounded by tall buildings and not an attractive public area proposition.
He pointed out there was a larger Timezone entertainment offering going into the city block development which may accommodate some of the play offerings being talked about.
Mana whenua representative Evelyn Cook believed the empty space could become an eyesore after a while and the idea of having something vibrant and active in that space could be quite attractive.
Clark was keen for the council to discuss the matter at a February workshop “otherwise the land would just sit there vacant”.