Invercargill City councilors have strongly expressed their desire to have the council proceed with the $46 million investment into the new City Block development. 

If it goes ahead, the council’s total investment would be made up of its initial $20 million investment, $5 million allowed for contingency, an additional $5 million originally allowed for design changes, and an extra $16 million investment into the project (to make up a shortfall created after another investor pulled out). 

At a council meeting yesterday, all councillors indicated they believed the extra $16 million investment was vital for not only completing the project but securing the heart of Invercargill CBD for generations to come. 

A final decision won’t be made until Tuesday, after one last report on the City Block extra investment is deliberated on by councillors on Monday (June 29), to ensure all details of the extra investment have been covered off before they can give the development the final tick of approval. 

Last week councillors heard submissions from the public on whether they should invest further money into City Block at a public hearing held at the Civic Theatre.

At yesterday’s meeting, Cr Nigel Skelt spoke about, how after hearing the submission from the Invercargill Youth Council, he was extremely moved and realised that many Invercargill youth were embarrassed to call Invercargill home. 

“They said they were ashamed to come from Invercargill. Ashamed.”

He said council owed it to the future generations of Invercargill to let them grow up and live in a city that they were proud of.

“The biggest risk we have as council, as a community is that we don’t take the very minimal risk that we have in front of us. So, I absolutely support [this project] for the future of Invercargill.”

Cr Alex Crackett agreed with Cr Skelt saying he “took the words right out of [her] mouth”.

Councillors also heard one final submission at the beginning of the meeting, which wasn’t heard during the City Block hearing due to a computer error missing the submission off the list. 

The submission was from Mr Gaire Thompson, who works within the retail and mall industry. He strongly advised against investing any more money into the City Block, saying building an expensive mall during this economically uncertain time was far too risky and it was destined to become a ghost mall. 

However, Cr Darren Ludlow said it wasn’t simply just a “mall” to be overrun by online shopping but a community hub designed to give people a place to meet, eat and socialise as well be the much needed beating heart of Invercargill’s CBD. 

“As the levels of lockdown were reduced, people missed the chance to connect [in person] with others... Hospitality is one thing that you cannot provide online.”

He said City Block would provide that place for connection in Invercargill and the longer council waited on deciding, the more it would cost. 

Cr Ian Pottinger said City Block still came with risk but doing nothing also came with risk so he urged the public to look at the project with the glass half full instead of half empty. 

“This provides us with a large building project that will crank up Invercargill’s economy and then provide us with a new CBD complex… this project won’t proceed without the $16 million,” he said. 

Cr Darren Ludlow also added that the interest rates would never be lower so the ICC should be jumping at the chance to build now. 

Cr Toni Biddle made the point that where the $46 million seemed like a lot to invest into the city at once, Invercargill was long overdue for such a financial injection. 

“There hasn’t been a lot of investment into the city for decades. I think the ICC needs to be brave and set that up for future generations.”

Councillors Lesley Soper and Graham Lewis agreed with Cr Biddle.

“We’re talking about creating something [for future generations] that’s been missing from our city for many years,” Cr Soper said.

Cr Rebecca Amundsen wanted to make sure the ICC took into account some possible changes, acknowledge there would be some impacts on other projects within the community, but also agreed that not moving forward with the extra investment would be a mistake.