Village townhouses go

Press, 12 June 1986, Page 1

Village townhouses go

Developers of the Merivale Village project will now build 36 tourist units — for the exclusive tourist market — instead of the 20 townhouses originally planned. However, they do not see the development as just another Papanui Road motel. \ - -The architect, Mr Peter Beaven, said - yesterday the intention was to enable'tourists to get a taste of Merivale by staying in units overlooking the lake and village green. The man who initiated the project last year, Mr Kim Pettengell, chairman of the Merivale Precinct Society, is not happy with the changes to the final design. “One reason the society got involved was to stop yet another motel development in Papanui Road — we wanted something for the people of Merivale,” he said. Mr Pettengell acknowledged that the people would get an open space as part of the develop-

ment, but the community would also have to tolerate more traffic on Merivale streets, he said. He said he was also disappointed that the project was now being handled by completely outside interests; no longer was anyone in Christchurch, let alone Merivale, involved. The concept arid philosophy had been lost, and the lake and green — all that was left of the original proposal — were still there only as attractions for the motels.

The society would decide what action might be taken to oppose the tourist units, Mr Pettengell said.

The units will be built in what Mr Beaven calls the Merivale style — weatherboard, with corrugated iron roofs. Mr Beaven, who has been involved in the project through several changes of developer,

says the final design has “got the best we could out of the project.” A commercial building, with a wine bar and restaurant, at the corner of Office Road and Papanui Road is the first stage of the $B.l million project. , The spokesman - for Commercial Pacific, the company managing the project, Mr Kevin Ryall, says work has begun and should be finished by November.

Stage two — the motel units — should be completed by March 31. Mr Ryall would not say how much the. complex would cost, but the final retail value would be $B.l million; $3.1 million for the commercial building and $5 million for the units.

The developers want to sell the completed complex. Mr Ryall said there already had been consider-

able interest, and the developers have considered two contracts, with international hotel chains among those showing interest.

The final design increases the size of the lake, and each unit will have a lake frontage. The developers want to give the land for the lake and the village green to the Christchurch City Council. In return they want the council to develop and maintain the lake and the green as reserves for the people of Christchurch. Mr Ryall estimates the value of the reserve land at $750,000. Negotiations to let the commercial space are under way. The tourist units would be for the “exclusive market,” with room rates $95 to $lO5 a night, he said.

The units will be entered from Office Road, almost opposite the entrance to the mall carpark, and there are 41 car-parks in the design. St Alban’s Methodist Church, in Rugby Street, is still in the design concept, and will be opened up to the village green, and the church hall will be developed as a community centre. Both Mr Ryall and Mr Beaven see the village green, fronting Papanui

Road, and the lake as being for the people of the community, and the wine bar should attract local residents. The Merivale development was first made public in September last year when the Merivale Precinct Society announced the plan to build the village. The society was not able to finance the project and has gone through several development proposals until yesterday’s announcement that the project would be completed by Auckland company interests.