VACANT: Long-time lease holders Liz and Gordon Davies are not renewing their lease for the Soundshell building. PHOTO/STEPHEN PARKER
VACANT: Long-time lease holders Liz and Gordon Davies are not renewing their lease for the Soundshell building. PHOTO/STEPHEN PARKER
An "iconic Rotorua building" that has fallen into disrepair will be taken out of use while district councillors decide its fate.
The Soundshell building at the Lakefront, which has been leased by Soundshell Market organisers Liz and Gordon Davies since 1988, will be emptied at the end of this month.
That means this Sunday will be the last day the market will have indoor stalls at its current location.
Rotorua Soundshell.
The building required "significant maintenance", but Mrs Davies said that was not the reason they discontinued the lease.
"While we don't dispute the building is very tired, our main reason for not renewing our lease is the viability of the indoor stalls.
"Many of our stall owners have been with us since we started 27 years ago and are now getting too old to maintain their stalls.
"Today we have about 20 stalls inside whereas when we started we had triple that. Slowly but surely, people have ceased attending and we haven't had any new stall owners wanting to take part.
"It is a shame that such an iconic Rotorua building will be sitting there idle but unfortunately it is just too difficult to maintain."
Councillors touched on the future of the Soundshell building in the Rotorua Lakes Council Long-term Plan hearings yesterday.
Councillor Janet Wepa said the council "purposely allowed the Soundshell to deteriorate because we thought we might not want it".
She made it clear she would want community input on the future of the Soundshell.
Council sports and recreation manager Rob Pitkethley said the council had not made any decisions about the fate of the building.
"There are significant maintenance issues and some earthquake strengthening required to bring the building up to a reasonable standard so it is an appropriate time to put any further leasing of the space on hold," he said.
Bargain Hunters packed into the Soundshell for a Paddy's Market on Saturday.
"There are potentially significant costs involved in bringing the building up to a suitable level of repair."
Soundshell Market stall owner Jonathan Tripode said the closing of the stalls was "a bit upsetting".
"I have had a stall in that building for 10 years on and off and we are like one big family so it is sad knowing there will no longer be indoor stalls."
