Re:START name set to disappear

Re:START name set to disappear as tenants start to move to new builds

When the Re:START container mall brand finishes this Sunday (April 30), it will be met with a mixture of emotions by departing retailers and the Re:START the Heart Trust.

Chair John Suckling says the time is right for the Trust to wind up, now that new CBD retail spaces are gradually starting to come on stream.

“Re:START was always a temporary transition project, so the Trust feels that five and a half years is long enough. We feel it’s time to step aside, now that new spaces are starting to become available. It was never our intention to compete with permanent new central city developments.”

Re:START the Heart Trust has sold the brightly coloured containers to a property investment group that is planning to build a Farmers Market on the block. While several existing retailers will shortly be shifting into permanent new CBD premises, others will remain trading on the site until their new stores in nearby developments are finished. The new landowners will be responsible for running the retail and hospitality operators who remain.

Suckling says Re:START has achieved its objectives of demonstrating retail could survive in the central city and of providing space for CBD retailers, displaced by the earthquakes, to continue trading.

“When we first mooted the idea, there were quite a few people – some quite influential – who said that we didn’t need a central city, that we could exist with just the suburbs. We didn’t agree with that view and so we lobbied very strongly to be able to get something going in the CBD.

“We thought it would be six months or 12 months and then things would start to happen. But, in fact, it’s taken much longer. Now that Re:START, as we know it, is finishing, I’m sad in one way but delighted that we’ve served a really useful function in proving central city retail can survive,” Suckling says.

“We wish the retailers who’ve been part of Re:START all the best for the future and thank visitors and the people of Christchurch for their support. We hope that everyone will continue to support the retailers as they start in new premises or continue in the containers (under new mall ownership) until more permanent premises become available.”

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