Alan Findlay

I MUST say, I was rather shocked by the Beacon front page headlines of September 20.

What are councillors thinking? Looking to turn the old Wally Sutherland car yard into a Creative Arts Hub.

If after all these years of doing nothing with our asset, the best our councillors can come up with is a creative hub, well then maybe they should collectively step down and we get Anne Tolley and her associates in to help sort the town (as happened in Tauranga) or they need to go and ask a senior high school business class for ideas.

Before some of you start screaming, that I’m anti-arts, I’m not. In the right facility, great. But …

• It is historically given that making money out of the arts is incredibly difficult.
• It’s a very large site (for Whakatāne) so filling it with quality operators that attract sufficient customers would be near impossible.
• How much money are we ratepayers going to be expected to invest into the property to make it suitable and attractive?
• Our town has multiple arts groups and educational operations that teach and promote the arts with underutilised facilities. Two large ones are owned, run and supported by us ratepayers.

Let us be honest here, councils across the country, and ours is certainly no better, have an embarrassing record of spending money on projects that never generate the projected returns. We cannot afford another.

The site was earmarked for a quality hotel. That fell through. A shame. It is unanimously agreed that our town is in need of another retirement village. Not a huge 5hectare-plus operation. This site is the perfect size and location. A very short walk to shops, doctors, pharmacy, cafes, restaurants, parks and, of course, the river walkway.

A development like this will create considerable employment during construction and year-round stable income for operating staff. Bringing people into the town centre will increase revenue for our beleaguered retail sector. What’s more, this development would beautify the central town site. The services required, roading, water, power etc, are already in place. Hell, even the bus goes by.  

Best of all, the council won’t have to invest hundreds of thousands of dollars developing the site along with ongoing management costs. It would be a nice rates’ income stream for the town.

If the council can’t find a retirement village operator keen to develop the site or come up with a better plan, then sell the site. The funds will help pay for the other fanciful projects our council is embarking on.

Speaking of council revenue, Please, please, please leave the isite visitor information centre where it temporarily is now on The Strand, or, even better, put it in the library. Or, even better still, give/lease it to a souvenir/gift shop. After all, the visitor information centre is in direct competition with those type of shops. To generate operational funds, it tries to sell a range of nicknacks. Then the building can be leased out to a restaurant or the like and generate a true market income for us beleaguered ratepayers.

Whakatane District Council acting general manager strategy and transformation Leny Woolsey responds:

THE council purchased a group of six properties including the Wally Sutherland’s building in May 2019, enabling the site to be master-planned for future strategic development opportunities.

In the meantime, the building has been identified as ideal for establishing a high-quality, high-profile arts, culture, and creativity-based business or activity that is authentically local and financially sustainable. The expressions of interest specifies a maximum period of five years for a Creative Hub. The use of the building does not impede progressing with development options for the site and our door is open to potential developers.