Weekend ODT looks at The Exchange

Updated April 18, 2013 at 3:07 pm

Alert from Channel 9:
Barry Stewart says tomorrow’s ODT magazine section looks at The Exchange area and “what they’re doing there”.

Who is ‘they’ we ask. Like Scenic Circle and Dunedin Casino shouldn’t be building a god-awful one-level carpark to replace the former Bank of Australasia and the former Butterworth building in High Street…when good stewards like the Macknight’s have put in the grunt work and finance to do up their heritage Bing Harris building (with the abutting Clarion building) across the road, enhancing precinct values and attracting new business to the ‘style’ end of town.

Let’s see what ODT’s on about…

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### ODT Online Sat, 24 Oct 2009
Magazine: Solid centre
By Charmian Smith
Princes St and the Exchange area, where the Toitu stream once flowed into the harbour, was where local Maori beached their canoes on the tidal mud flat and also where the first European settlers landed – there is a plaque on the footpath at the corner of Water St and Princes St marking the spot. Nearby Jetty St is so named because it led to the jetty.
Read more + ‘Grand buildings dominate the Exchange’ (slide show)
Photos by Peter McIntosh

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### ODT Online Sat, 24 Oct 2009
Magazine: Change of plan
By Charmian Smith
Once the financial heart of the city, the Exchange has seen better times. But things are changing. Following the report by museum consultant Dr Rodney Wilson, made public this week, about Dunedin’s standing as “a special and unique heritage site”, Charmian Smith investigates the rejuvenation of Dunedin’s CBD.

[Excerpts]
● Structural engineer Stephen Macknight’s family has redeveloped the former New Zealand Insurance Company building, now Queens Gardens Court, the former New Zealand Express Company building, now Consultancy House, and most recently the Clarion/Bing Harris buildings between Princes St and High St. The other members of the family are busy in their respective professions, so buying, redeveloping and tenanting buildings is as much a passion as an investment – although they need to have a fair return, Mr Macknight says. “We are looking at doing something that is of real value and adds to the area and we get satisfaction from it as well.”
● William Cockerill, managing director of project management specialists Octa, has redeveloped the former National Bank building in Princes St. Octa’s innovative and sustainable renovation of the building has won several national and international awards, and now more than 70 people work in it, with major tenants including Motor Trade Finance in the splendid banking chamber, and Tourism Dunedin in the tower block. Upgrading buildings in an inner-city area is more sustainable than building on new sites, as all the amenities such as sewerage and roads, parks and other public spaces are already there, he says.
● Peter Harris, manager of the city council economic development unit, says there are many innovative but low-profile software businesses in Dunedin, many clustered around the Exchange, whose customers are mainly offshore.
● Dunedin City Council city development manager Anna Johnson says one of the challenges with the Exchange area is relatively low market rentals which discourage landlords from renovating. If the council invests in the former chief post office, the largest building in the area, it could be an incentive to raise the value of the smaller properties which would then make it economically viable to redevelop them.
Read more

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr