Old RSA building and i-Site lead month's consents

Work on transforming the former RSA building into offices and a cafe. Photo/Stephen Parker

A $2 million consent for the transformation of the old RSA building into an office and cafe site was the biggest commercial building consent issued in Rotorua last month.

In March, 111 building consents were issued by Rotorua Lakes Council, worth $8.4 million.

Of those, 24 were for commercial projects, up slightly on the previous year, but the value of the work at $5.2 million was 24 per cent less than last year.

Along with the consent for the former RSA building development, a $1.2 million consent was issued to the council for the seismic strengthening of the i-Site building, which includes replacing the toilets and creating more office space.

Other big consents included a $600,000 new truck depot for chilled goods and a $600,000 consent for the fit out of the new FreshChoice supermarket on Te Ngae Rd.

Pukeroa Oruawhata general manager Peter Faulkner said work on the transformation of the old RSA building into the office space and cafe was under way.

"It's tracking along very well. We are effectively stripping out the inside."

He said they would be doing seismic and structure reinforcements and reconfiguring the site to provide "A grade" premises.

Mr Faulkner said the upstairs 400sq m had been leased to a "professional services" firm while they were talking to a prospective tenant for a downstairs cafe area and other 750sq m - 800sq m office space.

For the first quarter of 2017, the value and numbers for both residential and commercial dropped compared with the same time in 2016.

MARCH CONSENTS
- 24 commercial consents issued
- Total value of work for commercial consents of $5.2 million
- 87 residential consents issued
- Total value of residential consents $3.2 million