Spark moving to new premises in Whanganui Victoria Ave retail development

Spark's new store is next to the walkway from Victoria Ave through to Farmers.

Whanganui's Spark store and business hub are on the move to new permanent premises in Victoria Ave, filling a long-empty frontage on the main street.

The new premises are in the multimillion-dollar Victoria Retail Centre development which, until a cafe opened in one of the retail spaces in October 2017, had stood empty since its completion in early 2015.

Spark communications adviser Chloe Ferrand said the new store is three doors along from the current temporary premises in the former Postie Plus store.

"This new site at 85-97 Victoria Ave is the permanent site," Ferrand said.

"It is a new building, which is being fitted out at the moment and this building is fully earthquake compliant.

"We are hoping to relocate from the temporary premises to the new building in June."

Telcos Spark and Vodafone both closed their Victoria Ave premises in early December, citing earthquake safety concerns.

At the time Spark said the company's standard for earthquake resilience was more stringent than government building requirements and the Whanganui store at 65 Victoria Ave had been closed "by choice rather than by necessity".

Spark moved temporarily to 79 Victoria Ave, using the front part of the former Postie Plus building as its customer service space while permanent premises were found.

Vodafone initially set up a temporary kiosk in Trafalgar Square shopping centre and is currently located in a store in Trafalgar Square.

Vodafone external communications adviser Meera Kaushik said the store will move into permanent premises later this year.