There are changes afoot in the Bridge Block of Wanganui's main shopping artery, with a major building owner selling up and another looking for new lessees.
On one side of Victoria Ave the Embassy 3 Cinemas building, the old BNZ building and an empty building beside it are all for sale.
They
belong to Robert Bourdon, who also has two buildings for sale around the corner - 34 and 36 Taupo Quay.
The Conservation Department is negotiating toward moving its Tongariro/Whanganui/Taranaki conservancy office into one of them in about a year's time, Whanganui area manager Nic Peet said.
On the other side of the Avenue, the Ellis and Goodwin families own five buildings in Victoria Ave and two in St Hill St.
They call their enterprise Old Town Properties.
"Our intention was to get that area down there looking good and humming," Steve Ellis said.
He's looking for a new lessee for one of the buildings, because the Genghis Khan Mongolian BBQ restaurant has its last day on Wednesday.
Co-owner Steve Ellis said he and the other owners were in for the long haul.
They expected the area to grow.
They have owned large parts of the block for about four years.
Returns have not been huge, and they sold two buildings to finance renovation of the former Bank of New South Wales building.
They are now putting hundreds of thousands of dollars into renovating the lower storey of another for the new Spice Guru restaurant.
Mr Ellis said the Wanganui District Council had become more helpful to the owners of heritage buildings.
"We still have to comply with everything, but there seems to be more assistance in how to comply."
The block was looking a lot smarter than it had in the past, and with the riverfront development and information centre he said it would get better yet.
"Hopefully, we will get all that area up and running within the next three to four months."
