Stylish new mall complex for Linwood

Press, 23 October 1984, Page 22

Stylish new mall complex for Linwood

At an official ceremony at 9 a.m. this morning, the first sod will be turned for the start of work on the proposed Linwood City Shopping Centre. This is the culmination of many months of planning on the part of the major companies involved in the project: G.U.S. Properties; New Zealand Meat Nominees — who hold the investments of the Waitaki N.Z. Refrigerating Company’s superannuation scheme — and Industrial Holdings, Ltd. Their approximate shareholdings are 29 per cent, 51 per cent and 20 per cent

respectively. The new shopping centre will be at the north-eastern corner of Buckleys Road and Linwood Avenue, on a rectangular site with extensive frontages on four roads -r- Linwood Avenue, Buckleys Road, Russell Street and Cranley Street. The intersection of Linwood and Buckleys Roads is one of the busiest in Christchurch, with Buckleys and Aidwins Roads giving direct access from the southern suburbs through to New Brighton. Linwood Avenue itself provides access from the

eastern suburbs of Sumner, Clifton, Redcliffs, Mount Pleasant, Bromley, Woolston and Linwood through to the city centre. The complex to be built will thus be ideally located to serve a substantial sector of urban Christchurch. The shopping centre is planned to offer a total floor space of about 12,400 square metres, including toilets and concourse areas. This space provides for about 60 shops and a large supermarket. In addition, on-site parking for about 500 vehicles is planned.

The proposed building will be rectangular, with the long side parallel to Buckleys Road. The internal layout provides two parallel malls, linked by a central promotional mall area, and links at both ends. The mall will be totally enclosed, and will feature a Super Value supermarket, retail shops and boutiques, mall offices and rest rooms. Griffiths, Moffet and Partners are the designers; Russell, Drysdale and Thomas is the firm of quantity surveyors, and Industrial Holdings, Ltd, is the

building company and the organiser of the financial arrangements. The design of the centre will be similar to that of Merivale Mall, which is one of the most recent shopping centres to have opened in Christchurch. The new complex will incorporate the most modem materials and will have customer convenience as the main priority. Once Linwood City is completed, it is anticipated that the complex will operate during normal retail hours on Monday to Saturday.

Besides providing a source of valuable employment opportunity, both during and after construction, the centre will provide a long-awaited facility for residents of eastern Christchurch. It will be a valuable focal point for the currently fragmented Linwood shopping centre, providing modern, centralised, under-cover shopping, and substantial off-street parking areas. The cost — land and building — is ?10 million, and the project is expected to take 18 months to complete.