$3 million office block deferred

Press, 13 February 1982, Page 6

$3 million office block deferred

The Canterbury Trade Union Centre. Inc., has deferred its plan for a $3 million office and recreation block on a site in Armagh Street bought from the North Canterbury Hospital Board last October. The centre's secretary, Mr F. E. McNulty, said yesterday that a decision had been deferred because with interest rates about 17 per cent the cost of servicing the money that would be borrowed to finance the construction was too high. Instead the centre has applied to the Registrar of Incorporated Societies for approval to register a trade union club which would use the existing building for

social purposes. The biggest single shareholder of the centre is the Canterbury Trades Council, which has shares worth $79,176. The centre has 21 other shareholders, all of which are trade unions, with a total nominal capital of $400,000. The centre was incorporated in 1972. The original plans for the site at 191 Armagh Street called for the demolition of the present building, which for many years was used as a chest clinic. The centre had proposed to have a six or seven-storey building which would have provided office space, recreational facilities accommodation for visiting unionists, and a creche.