New Regent Street’s Celebrate A Heritage Milestone

Today property owners and tenants in New Regent Street celebrated that the Christchurch City Council Heritage and Covenants Grants Committee yesterday approved the first property to be funded under the Heritage Grants Scheme for a complete refurbishment. It’s hoped that this will set a precedence for the entire street’s refurbishment. The Street is hopeful work will commence as early as August this year.

New Regent Street proudly boasts it was the forerunner to the modern shopping mall in New Zealand. The great open air precinct with an exciting mix of Boutique Specialty shops, restaurants and cafes gives the interest and appeal of one of Christchurch’s main tourist attractions and shopping centre’s combined. Construction of the Street was built in 1931 and was designed by acclaimed architect Francis Willis who was also responsible for the design of the Repertory Theatre which was also successful in achieving a grant application on Thursday.

The CCC will be partly funding the restoration of the Historic New Regent Street Buildings by 40%, the project may also be party funded by the Historic Places Trust and the remainder by property owners. The effects of the revitalisation work will be positive in terms of preserving the unique sense of place of the street and adding to the vitality and attractiveness of one of the key spaces of the central city of Christchurch.

The paint colours proposed for the facades have been selected following a detailed analysis of the existing facades. Paint scrapings were taken from a number of properties along the street and from a number of levels and locations on the facade. These were sent off for analysis by Resene Paints.

Late in 2009 Council staff submitted a resource consent, for those works eligible for Heritage Incentive Grant (HIG) Funding. This includes Cavity wall tie renewal and seismic upgrade, Parapet waterproofing, Roofing repairs, Plaster façade repairs, Repainting, and more.

The New Regent Street Business Group hopes that once the project starts momentum will build and the street restoration will be completed in a short period of time however as the council funding may be spread over more than 3 years.

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