City centre options explored

Unlimited Paenga Tawhiti is looking for a new central-city site after one of its earthquake-damaged buildings was demolished.

The school’s three former locations in the City Mall have been within the red zone since February last year.

The Hallensteins building has been demolished, the Southern Star building across the road has been earmarked for demolition and the future of The Crossing has not been determined.

The secondary school shifted to Halswell Residen- tial College last year and this year its pupils are also working partly from Canterbury University.

These arrangements will remain in place for at least the rest of this year, but Unlimited co-director Tanja Grzeta said she hoped the school could operate from a base in the central city next year.

The long-term goal is to have a new purpose-built school in the central city, but Grzeta said she expected the school would have to move into an existing building in the interim.

The number of children attending the school had dropped from 440 to 394 since the February 2011 quake and the school’s remote location was partly to blame, Grzeta said.

She would meet Education Ministry staff early next month.

Ministry regional property manager Simon Cruickshank said the ministry had engaged a project manager to investigate alternatives for Unlimited. ‘‘The changing face of the city in the wake of the earthquakes has presented significant challenges for education providers previously based in the central business district,’’ he said.