property + asset management

Call for action on Lichfield car park

May 22, 2014

The Christchurch City Council has set a precedent with car parking in the CBD but there’s another major stalemate that needs solving, a retail precinct landowner says.
The council this week confirmed it had sold the Crossing car park land to the Carter Group, which would build a new 534-space parking building on the Lichfield site as part of its $100 million development.
Colliers general manager Jonathan Lyttle said the move was “crucial” to attract tenants to the city core and the phone had not stopped ringing since The Press broke the story on Wednesday.
City Mall landowner Peter Guthrey praised the council for setting a precedent but said would- be developers on the west side of Colombo St now required the same level of action.
“They did a deal with Carter Group regardless of the fact that the insurance claim on the [Crossing car park building] had not been settled . . . so now they need to look at the Lichfield St car park.”
Both Antony Gough’s development and Nick Hunt’s Cashel Square complex required more certainty around car parking to help secure tenants, he said.
“Obviously it’s really positive that we will have a new car parking building, but we still need a lot more spaces than what Philip Carter is providing.”
Guthrey said the retail precinct master plan, commissioned by the Christchurch Central Development Unit (CCDU), was due for release soon and was based around a new car-parking building on the Lichfield St site.
He hoped a public-private partnership could be brokered to “really make the entire retail precinct work”.
The Press understands that Wilson Parking has expressed an interest in taking on Lichfield St parking building but the company was unavailable for comment yesterday.
Lyttle said the news of the new Crossing car park was “truly fantastic”.
“Tenants need to know that we will have an accessible city centre if they’re going to be able to compete with malls,” he said.
Council finance committee chairman Cr Raf Manji said the council had received proposals for the developme the Lichfield St site in the past six months but “noth ing is on the table at this stage”.
“But we are now going to return our attention to the Lichfield St car park and talk to the CCDU as well . . . to see what can be done.”
Old proposals might be reconsidered, he said, and there was the potential to resolve the issue before the insurance claim was settled.
CCDU project delivery general manager Greg Wilson said future plans for the Lichfield St site lay with the council.
“[The] council’s decisions . . . will be incorporated into the finalised [retail precinct] plan,”

– The Press