Hero's of the rebuild

There are plenty of hero's in the community including sports, business, and  arts people, philanthropists and volunteers, all making an invaluable contribution to society.

I personally have huge admiration for those who succeed in business  because although they are driven by personal ambition, they also create real prosperity, and opportunities for others.

They take huge chances often risking everything including their homes as they battle against all the obstacles imaginable. I can attest to the many challenges business people face having managed myself to survive the downturns of both the 1980's and the past few years.

For some the rewards are huge as evidenced by local businessman Rod Dury's topping the Hawke's Bay rich list with his IT company Zero, but for most its pretty much just working extremely hard often for little more than an average wage.  

Two individuals presently stand out because they are having, or are about to have,  a profound impact on our city centers, especially in Hastings. 

The Hastings CBD has been a pretty much static scene for decades. The old Power Board, State Insurance, Wattie Industries and three bank buildings all date back to at least the early 1970's.

Now suddenly we are seeing a massive rebuild thanks primarily to two entrepreneurial individuals, Jonathan Wallace and Michael Whittaker.

The renaissance started when Wallace Development Company built the new Farmers Store on Heretaunga Street west which happened to incorporate Hawke's Bays first escalator. Next was the rebuild of the old Woolworths building one block nearer town across from the clock tower. Completing the trio and now apparently nearing completion is the rebuilt for Power Board building in Heretaunga St East, soon to be occupied by Hawke's Bay Today.

Now Michael Whittaker son of the former Mayor of Havelock North has purchased the derelict old Albert Hotel and is developing ideas for site. Whilst many of us had a nostalgic hope the oldest commercial building in town could be saved, it has become increasingly clear the choices were to demolish and redevelop or wait until it collapsed in a cloud of borer dust and rat droppings. At the same time he has purchased the old Bon Marche building on the opposite side of the street.

Whilst his plans are uncertain at this stage, it is clear he has the vision and the financial clout to do something worthwhile.

Following the hammering we received  from rodgernomics  in the 1980's Heretaunga  St has been at a standstill. Successive councils have tried  to change the situation including turning part of it into a mall,  then when that didn't work,  abandoning that idea and opening it back up to traffic. The outcomes have been far from successful despite the considerable cost to ratepayers .

So now, at no cost to ratepayers we have two individuals with the confidence necessary to rescue our CBD. I am confident they will succeed if only because they are taking on the risks, and that is always a major incentive to get it right.

It couldn't have happened a moment too soon. The impact of the Christchurch earthquakes is the realisation many of our buildings  would not stand up to a similar seismic event. 

I love old architecture. It  has a grace and elegance that is mostly missing from today's structures. The jewel in the Hastings crown has to be the Opera House and adjacent Civic Chambers, but there are plenty of other great examples of Art Deco and Spanish Mission structures, and most are likely to need work to bring them up to even the minimum 33% of code.

This could have resulted in wasteland  as owners decided strengthening or rebuilding was just not financially viable. We might have ended up with large areas demolished and used for  car parking or even abandoned. In a worst scenario the  CBD could have been deserted in favour of a full migration in the direction of the old Nelson Park. Have a look at Market St North without Farmers, The Warehouse and Stationery to see where we might have been headed.

Its impossible to see that happening now. With Farmers anchoring the redevelopment of Heretaunga St and  many other new developments in the pipeline we seem to have turned the corner. 

Hastings history is full of other visionary people including Francis Hicks, Thomas Tanner, the Williams and the Chambers, but in the decades to come we  are likely to be thankful for the vision and enterprise shown by Michael Whittaker and Jonathan Wallace because they started the rejuvenation of Hastings .