Major projects secret for time being

Commercial building applications in Invercargill are down, but several unconfirmed major projects in the works could build numbers back up before the end of the financial year.

In the first eight months of the 2016-17 financial year the council received 57 commercial building applications, to the value of $18,944,669.

In all of 2015-16, the council received 123 commercial building applications, to the value of $57,644,253.

A report to the council’s regulatory services committee says January had a good number of building consent applications at 72 so far.

However, the report noted there had been few commercial applications.

Council’s income for commercial work was down on last year, but was on par with 2014-15.

The report says there were several larger projects looming, which were yet to have consents.

Council building services manager Brendan Monaghan said there had been conversations with developers and builders regarding future jobs.

They did not know detail of start date, value or sometimes even the location of the larger projects, he said.

Russell Cunningham Properties Ltd quantity surveyor and project manager Alex Cunningham said the development in Bill Richardson Drive continued to progress positively.

‘‘We’ve got another consent going in shortly, and another in the pipeline.’’

One consent was for a Plumbing World store in the business development, he said.

The others were larger developments, which could not yet be named.

Last year, Russell Cunningham Properties would have lodged about three consents for new development in the area, he said.

A decline in applications was not something it had observed.

They were working with many interested parties which were looking to move to the business park, he said.

Cunningham said the owners of the new cafe, Industry, were working hard and the carpark was always full.

HWR Group director Scott O’Donnell said any trend downwards in commercial building activity was not obvious to him.

Last year the group redeveloped buildings on Tay St and opened the Classic Motorcycle Mecca.

City improvements were under way at the hands of the Southland Regional Development Strategy, he said.

‘‘The key thing that the CBD needs, is it needs to be rebuilt.

‘‘We have done our best to put the motorbikes in the CBD but the next things are the ILT hotel and the art gallery.’’

If those things could happen they would see a lot more activity in the CBD, he said.

‘‘We are all trying to make these changes, but it’s a long-term project to make it better.’’

Venture Southland general manager of business and strategic projects Steve Canny said he had seen a lot of recent developments in the city.

Canny said declining resource consent numbers could be misleading, and were influenced by several factors.

Investment in the city early last year was significant, he said.

The HWR group had made a huge influence with its development of the Classic Motorcycle Mecca and the Bill Richardson Transport World, he said.

‘‘There’s a cycle that occurs that can distort the numbers.’’

Venture Southland had witnessed a lot of interest in new business opportunities, not just in Invercargill but all of Southland, he said.

‘‘But as with all of these initiatives, there’s often some significant lag time for those to come to fruition.’’