Ashburton Guardian, Wednesday, October 23, 2013

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Ashburton getting younger

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Wednesday, October 23, 2013

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New life for arcade

The new Ashburton Arcade (seen from Burnett Street) will retain the historic Redmond’s facade on the right.

BY SUE NEWMAN

SUE.N@THEGUARDIAN.CO.NZ

After more than 100 years Ashburton’s historic arcade is likely to be demolished to make way for a new shopping precinct. Arcade owner Barry Redmond yesterday unveiled plans for a new retail complex that will replace a building that has its foundations in the early 1880s. He believes the 21st century arcade will revitalise inner Ashburton. The demolition has been prompted by earthquake strengthening requirements.

“We’ve had our engineering reports and it’s not an economic option to bring the arcade up to those requirements, so it’s been an economic decision to look at redeveloping it. We feel the town needs a retail heart and people are used to using this retail space,” he said. The arcade demolition will be total, except for the façade of one building on its western end. This is believed to be one of the oldest remaining buildings in central Ashburton. It carries the inscription M&T, (Mitchell and Turner)1874 below its flag pole.

“But at the end of the day this too will be an economic and engineering decision.” Mr Redmond has met with arcade tenants to discuss the rebuild and said they were excited at the prospect of working in the new retail space. That had been key in the decision to move planning forward, he said. “I’m sure we’ll do this because there was enough positive buy in on Monday. We need to talk more with tenants as it becomes a logistical exercise how they can continue to remain open while we do this.”

He believes the redevelopment of the arcade will be a significant boost to inner town retail after so much focus has been on developments on the western side of town. The arcade project will complement a joint venture retail development planned by several land owners with properties adjoining the arcade and fronting Burnett, Cass and Tancred Streets. Ashburton needed a strong retail heart and the planned developments would ensure this happened, Mr Redmond said. Sign-off on the demolition has

been received from the Historic Places Trust. Archaeologists will be on site during the demolition. The new arcade will have a glassed roof to allow sunlight to spill into central open spaces and courtyards. It is planned as four separate structures and will have more retail space available than there is in the current complex. No date has been set for work on the project to commence.

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