Council buys pub to widen street

Fairfax NZ

GOING: The fire damaged Globe Hotel in April.

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The city council has confirmed it has bought the St Vincent St property occupied by the fire-damaged Globe Hotel, which will be demolished.

The council said it had bought the property by tender for $561,000 partly to protect space required for the possible construction of the southern arterial route.

In the meantime the land will be used to provide space for footpaths and cycle lanes and to give extra room at the "narrow pinch-point" on a busy road.

Planned expansion of walkways and cycleways as part of the walk, cycle and schools package announced in line with the recent funding allocation by the New Zealand Transport Agency, includes on-road cycle lanes along St Vincent St from Halifax St. They will provide a link from the central city south via the Railway Reserve corridor.

This route has also been identified by the Nelson Tasman Cycle Trails Trust as an interim regional cycling route from the Nelson iSite to the Nelson Tasman Cycle Trail network. The council has purchased the site with the intention of keeping enough land for the cycle lane enhancements and then aims to sell any remaining land not required, infrastructure portfolio holder councillor Eric Davy said.

"We need this site in order to offer a safer environment on what is a tight section of a busy road. The purchase means we can guarantee its long-term availability to benefit our residents and we're still able to recoup some of the investment by on-selling the land we don't need."

There has been a hotel licence on the St Vincent St site since 1872 and the building now on the site has been there since 1903.

Mr Davy said the hotel, which was badly damaged by fire in April, would eventually be demolished. "The building will sit there until those processes are worked through but there's no timeframe yet. All I can say is that the building will have to come down at some point," Mr Davy said.

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