Site by Hagley Park up for sale

Ahigh-profile Christchurch block is back on the market after several redevelopment attempts, as LIZMCDONALDreports.

It used to be site of a furniture factory and showroom, housing the high-profile Hunter Furniture premises opposite Christchurch’s Hagley Park. The large property takes up half a hectare running from the corner of Riccarton Rd and Deans Ave, opposite the Riccarton roundabout, to the corner of Riccarton Rd and Darvel St.

Six years after the furniture business moved out, the site is back up for sale.

The Hunter family, headed up by Lionel Hunter, bought the property in the early 1980s from timber merchants W H Smith Ltd. For about 25 years the Hunters made and sold their furniture on the property.

When the company, by then run by son Paul, moved its store to Moorhouse Ave, the land was surplus to requirements. The first attempt to sell the land was unsuccessful, despite hopes that it might attract an international hotel chain.

Hunter then joined forces with local developer Lilly Cooper, drawing up a multimilliondollar master plan for shops, offices and apartments, at the same time putting up for sale a historic house on the site.

Cooper’s designs showed an ambitious gull-wing shaped building for high end retail and commercial tenants facing Riccarton Rd.

At the northern end of the site, upmarket townhouses were to go up.

The plan, which would have required rezoning, never got off the ground.

The collection of buildings on the property was demolished after the February 2011 earthquake.

Then developer Amherst Properties worked up plans for the site, wanting to undertake an office development which was also at odds with the site’s hospitality zoning.

The property is now being marketed again, this time by Colliers. It is for sale by private treaty with a November deadline.

Nick Doig of Colliers says the block is one of the one of the largest land parcels to come onto the market in Riccarton Rd in recent years.

The site is zoned Living 5 under Christchurch City Council rules, which would suit either a hotel or motel. It also has Living 3 rules applying, allowing for residential developments such as apartments or town houses.

Doig believes that given the scarcity of housing in Christchurch, the site could appeal to either residential developers or the tourism sector.

The block is in five separate titles and covers a total of 4995sq m. Previous plans: Designs for office and retail buildings for the Riccarton roundabout site now back on the market.