NEW NAPIER

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 2, Issue 400, 8 December 1932, Page 3

NEW NAPIER

REBUILDING & RECONDITIONING PREMISES IN BUSINESS AREA.

DESERTING EMERGENCY SHOPS. A reeent survey of new buildings in Napier shows that the value of work completed and in hand in the rebuilding of the town exceeds £400,000. Thirty-one buildings xepresenting a cost of £214,645 have heen completed in the eentral Emerson, Hastings, and Tennyson streets area, and the estimated value of work in other P'arts of the town is £187,757, with'ou't taking into aecount the great amount of work done and still in hand in the reconditioning of buildings which were merely damaged hy the earthquake and fire.

Some of the larger buildings, completed or in progress. are.- — Masonic Hotel, £41,000; Crdterion Hotel, £18,500; Plaza Theatre, £10,300; Market Reserve, £26,700; Post Office, £22,000; Blythe's Ltd., £16,529; Bowman's Estate, £14,000; Central Hotel, £21,976; and Daily Telegraph, £10,276. There are many buildings hetween £10,000 and £5000 in cost.

The rebuilding and reconditioning of the shopping area has led to a general move away from the emergency shopping area established hy the town auUiorities in Clive and Memorial squares.. These small shops were run up very quickly and met all Napier's demands for the first year or so. The rentals, were -exce,edingly low, and until a move was insisted upon hy the authorities there appeared to be a marked reluctance on the part of lessees to transfer their businesses to privata and much higher rented premises. but now that the area is heing deserted in part it will soon he deserted in whole, for empty shops next door are no assistance to business. In Clive square there are 32 shops, of which 17 are now empty, while there are 13 whose tenants will have moved by the end of the year) when their permanent premises are completed. Memorial square contains 20 shops 12 of them having been vacated. Eight out of 11 of the shops on the Tenneyson street frontage are empty, and all of these will have moved hy the second week in December. Early next year the whole square will he vacant, and steps will he taken to demolish the buildings. There are, however, five shops on the eastern side of the square which have heen leased until the 'end of March.