PAK'N SAVE EXPANDING

The top of the South’s largest supermarket is getting bigger with Richmond Pak ’n Save taking over the adjoining Powerstore building. Demolition workers started stripping out the Powerstore building yesterday to make space for the supermarket’s 750 square metre extension and new 620sqm loading dock which will be completed by the end of the year. Parallel plans by Richmond Mall include building a partly covered walkway connecting the mall to Kmart and The Warehouse on the southern side of the main carpark. Foodstuffs South Island property and development general manager Roger Davidson said the supermarket’s expansion was part of the company’s long-term plan for continued investment in the area and the community. Cephas Property management general manager Jamie Gaskell said the project was a vote of confidence for the region. ‘‘This development is part of a long term plan of continued investment in the Richmond community.’’ Cephas provides corporate and capital management services to Tinline Properties, which owns Richmond Mall. Gaskell said the latest upgrade followed on from significant remodelling of the mall’s food court and entrance extensions.

(The Nelson Mail Tuesday, January 20, 2015)

SMITH TOUTS HOME LIFT IN RMA REVAMP

A reformed Resource Management Act could result in more housing in Nelson and give proposals like the Southern Link road and the Waimea Community Dam a better chance, Nelson MP Nick Smith says. Wearing both his environment minister and minister of building and housing hats, Smith yesterday devoted his 20th annual speech to the Rotary Club of Nelson West to the Government’s plan to rewrite the act this year. He quoted four Nelson examples of why he thinks it has to be reformed:

• $57,000 spent by the Stoke Medical Centre in a six-month process to get an amended resource consent to expand its staff and hours, with a new requirement for seven new bicycle stands the result. ‘‘The bike stands cost $35 each but the bureaucratic paper associated with each meant they ended up costing over $8000 a stand,’’ Smith said.

• $64,000 to get a change of designation so that part of under-used Auckland Point School could become Nelson’s new Young Parents’ School last year, catering for teenage mothers and their preschool children.

• A couple in their 60s who abandoned plans for their dream home in Marsden Valley after being required to change the design so that the garage would be at the back and the living area facing the road. This was because under the RMA, the house had to provide a ‘‘positive private to public space relationship’’.

• Aquaculture consent applications lodged 20 years ago for Golden Bay but still unresolved, ‘‘with lawyers joking to me that the battle over where the farms might be located has got at least another five years of legal machinations and fees to play out’’.

Smith said Nelson’s figures were in line with national data showing that before the RMA’s introduction, 30 per cent of new houses were sold at less than the median value, while today’s figure was only 5 per cent.

(The Nelson Mail Thursday, January 22, 2015)

NEW WORK REFLECTS SUTER'S HISTORY

A walk through the Queen’s Gardens will now give you a view of the Suter Art Gallery as it was seen 116 years ago when it was opened in Nelson. As part of the gallery’s redevelopment, trees and bushes have been cleared, revealing a glimpse of the building’s original front entrance that was designed to be reflected in the Queen’s Gardens pond. The gallery was opened in 1899. ‘‘Nelsonians won’t have seen that reflection for a long time. You still need to be on the garden path to see it now but it’s looking really pretty,’’ said Suter Art Gallery director Julie Catchpole. The official entrance was moved around to face the centre of the city under the gallery’s first director Austin Davies in the 1970s. ‘‘Nelson developed from Trafalgar St so naturally the director didn’t want the gallery facing the gardens,’’ said Catchpole.  A week into construction, Catchpole is excited to see the $12 million redevelopment come to life. The gallery is in a temporary premises on Halifax St, due to open to the public in the next few weeks. The temporary location, opposite the Nelson library, will host exhibitions, after school programmes and the Suter Cafe while construction on the old site takes place.

(The Nelson Mail Thursday, January 22, 2015)

"THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK"

“The richer you get, the more expensive happiness becomes”  

Duke & Cooke Property News is a clipping service publication compiled by Duke & Cooke Ltd, valuation and property specialists. The information contained within this newssheet are excerpts of property-related articles from current local news sources. Full attribution is given for the source of the extracts in order that the reader may refer to the source articles for full information. As this publication is a clipping service only, the articles included do not necessarily reflect the opinion of Duke & Cooke, and these items are included impartially and objectively.