The Hive needs to go ahead

IT’S time to get The Hive project approved and built.

The $ 450m Townsville project has the potential to transform a dead zone in our city’s heart.

The cultural precinct has been a talking point since at least 2015, but it hit a significant hurdle due to plans to demolish the Criterion Hotel, which was on the council’s heritage list.

There was significant community opposition to removing the hotel from the heritage list to allow for its demolition.

While it’s the site of Townsville’s first pub, the Criterion Hotel is the third incarnation of the building itself.

It is important to preserve Townsville’s history and allowing changes to the heritage listing of buildings should never be done lightly.

Once these buildings are gone, there’s no getting them back.

However, common sense must prevail in this sort of decision making.

Just because a building is old or historically significant doesn’t mean it provides value.

That building is lying dormant and will likely stay that way.

The decision in this instance should be made around the true value of the building as it stands and what potential future value it may have should it be restored. This needs to be weighed against what is in the best interests of the broader community and the vision for the city.

This Griffin Group project at 45 Flinders St and 10 The Strand, will create hundreds of jobs and inject millions into the economy.

But more than that it will add to the hard work that’s ongoing to activate our city centre.

Linking The Strand with Flinders St would provide essential connectivity between the two areas.

The developers had hoped the project would be shovel ready by early 2017. Due to process and community consultation that hasn’t happened yet.

It would be a much- needed boost for the city to see this project come to fruition early in 2018.