Inner-city lunacy

As an American with a great love of New Zealand, I visit Invercargill whenever I am there.

Watching the decline of this once proud city has sat hard with me.

Businesses struggling to survive and increasing evidence of those that did not.

And now important heritage buildings are to be demolished to make room for a proposed mall in the expectation that it will attract shoppers away from Dunedin and elsewhere. As in an occasional daytrip, perhaps?

Four or five years to build, providing up to 500 jobs a year during the construction phase, certainly sounds great.

But hasn’t anyone noticed that there is a desperate skills shortage in New Zealand in the construction industry?

Even in Auckland where multiple attractions abound, including the climate, and where non-skilled workers are presently being recruited from overseas for training to help meet the demand for new construction.

Tenants for this new mall would be in short supply as businesses have been folding and leaving at a great rate and it will take more than a pretty architectural rendering to bring them back to the retail table.

The fact that no anchor store has yet been ‘‘locked down’’ speaks volumes. If this were such a wonderful opportunity, why the delay?

With no positive economic outlook for Invercargill (or Southland) this is a no-brainer and there are great losses ahead for both existing business owners and lovers of fine architecture alike.

Beautiful buildings ‘‘at risk’’ of earthquake damage to be demolished – but still standing after many decades.

This plan is opportunistic lunacy at its worst.

Linda Peacock