Demolition of leaky buildings presents opportunity to redevelop city centre

Councillor Bill Grainger has a bold new vision for Tauranga's civic heart.

A bold new vision for Tauranga's civic heart includes demolishing a cluster of leaky and mouldy buildings to create a city square and sculptural centrepiece.

Councillor Bill Grainger said his concept started with getting rid of the bus stops out of Willow St. "I never wanted them to be where they are now."

He proposes to shift the bus stops to Harington St and create a thoroughfare through the property currently occupied by The Mill Liquor that runs between Harington and McLean streets. Buses could then be channelled away from the heart of the downtown. The council did not own the bottle-store site.

Another central theme was parking, with Cr Grainger's concept incorporating the planned development of a parking building on the off-street carpark behind Harrington House. His vision was to link it by an overhead covered walkway to a new four-storey administration building.

The administration building would be realigned to face Hamilton St, opening up room along Willow St for a new plaza and city centre. Red Square could then revert to being open to cars.

His design was inspired by the Civic Heart project in which the council has sought public feedback on redeveloping the area. Discovery of toxic mould and the emptying out of large parts of badly leaking buildings has presented the council with a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to rebuild in a way that injected civic pride back into the downtown.

Cr Grainger's plan was flexible about who tenanted the administration building, with the ground floor incorporating a shopping mall. It would bring all council staff under one roof again but was large enough to accommodate other tenants.

The art gallery site could be extended a little into Masonic Park to allow more room for the development of a boutique museum alongside the gallery.

The library would stay roughly where it was now, but in a new two or three-storey building which could include other potential users that fitted its key function as a library.

Baycourt was the only building that survived although there was the potential to extend the auditorium.

A key to his plan was that all the buildings were connected and the square led to the waterfront via Masonic Park. Not shown was another potential overhead walkway linking the art gallery and museum with the library.

Cr Grainger was open to discussions with developers and investors on funding the buildings so the council ended up being a tenant.

Mayor Stuart Crosby congratulated Cr Grainger for the thought that had gone into the the plan, saying the location of the bus stops was always going to be considered in the Civic Heart discussions.

The top priority was to make a decision on the administration building which he expected around July. He hoped the council would give direction prior to the elections on other elements of the Civic Heart project like the library and museum.

"They would make for a good election debate."