Site Secured for New Library Centre

A major milestone in the Hawera town centre redevelopment project has been achieved today with the announcement that the South Taranaki District Council (STDC) has secured land in the CBD to build the new Centre for Heritage, Arts, Library, Culture and Information (CHALCI).

South Taranaki Mayor, Ross Dunlop, says the Council has purchased two properties on the corner of Regent and High streets in the middle of town.

“The new facility will be a key anchor project in the Hawera Town Centre Upgrade and will have the potential to combine a number of facilities onto one site, bringing much needed foot traffic, visitors and vibrancy to the town centre,” he says.

Mayor Dunlop says the new facility would include a bigger library, meeting rooms, public toilets, an art gallery and heritage exhibition space, the i-SITE information centre and a cafe. Possibly additional retail space could be considered if private business wanted to enter some sort of joint venture.

“Now that the site has been confirmed, we’ll be able to start work on the design of the new facility, which will involve plenty of consultation with key stakeholders. There’s a lot of planning and preparation to be done and we realistically don’t expect construction to start for another 12 – 18 months,” he says.

The Hawera Town Centre redevelopment is one of the key projects Council identified in its 2015 – 2025 Long Term Plan. Work is expected to be finished on the first town centre project, Campbell Lane, in late March 2017.

Mayor Dunlop says the Council is funding its contributions to the town centre project by way of loans, which are paid back from annual drawdowns from the Council’s Long Term Investment Fund (LTIF) This means there is no impact on rates to fund the project.

ENDS

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