Rebuild news

Geoff Mein from the local newspaper popped by recently to hear what we have been up to. He spent some time with co-directors Andrew and Mike Blackwell, and wrote a great story about us in the Northern Outlook of 3 September 2011.

Geoff was keen to know how we were going with plans to re-build the front of the store. It’s taken us a while to sort things out with the insurance, and our architects are drawing up plans for a new front structure now. The photo at right shows Mike and Andrew looking over the draft architectural plans.

Andrew told him how we don’t have issues with the land under the building. “The plan is to build another distinctive building on that corner,” says Andrew, “but there is no desire to reproduce the old building.”

Andrew is very clear they want to look forward, not back. “After the first quake we had the choice of being very pessimistic about the world.” There were certainly days when it felt easier to give up, but the Blackwells and their staff are determined people.

Community support for Blackwell’s has been fantastic. “Right from the start Kaiapoi people wanted to support not only us, but the whole local business community,” says Andrew.

All our efforts now are going into planning for the re-build and we hope to publish some draft designs very soon.

Thanks to Geoff Mein and the people at the Northern Outlook for permission to use the photo above, and quote from the article.

We’re moving out of the temporary store at 154 Williams Street, on the round-about opposite McDonald’s. We’re having an end-of-lease sale in the temporary store, all stock must go by the end of August. Come and see us and grab a bargain.

From September everything will be back in one location, in the remains of our original building on the corner of Raven Quay and Williams Street.

Demolition of the old part of the Blackwell’s building is over, and we’re up and running again in the remaining part of the Raven Quay store and our temporary location on the round-about opposite McDonald’s.

We’re working on plans with Wilkie & Bruce Architects for an exciting new two-storey building to go on the Raven Quay corner site, that the town and the family can be proud of.

We’ll update this site with more news soon.

The image above shows the Blackwell’s store before the old part of the building was demolished in February. This image is from the excellent Koordinates Christchurch Post earthquake website of aerial shots taken 24 Feb 2011. It is reproduced under the Creative Commons licence, provided by Koordinates. Please do not reproduce this image without following the licence terms.

We’ve now finished removing the old part of the building and have made the remaining building water-tight while it waits for the re-build to begin.

Work to remove the old part of the building continues…

The February earthquake damaged the old part of the building beyond repair and now has to come down.

We are now working with Alun Wilkie of Wilkie & Bruce Architects to develop a new building front and hope to be able to reveal our plans to the community soon. Watch this space, as they say.

At 4.35am on 4 September 2010 a force 7.1 earthquake struck the Canterbury area of the South Island, New Zealand. The town of Kaiapoi was badly hit by the quake and the iconic Blackwell’s Department Store building on the corner of Williams Street and Raven Quay was a victim. The front of the building was badly damaged and the store had to be abandonded until it’s fate could be decided.

The Blackwell family has owned and run the store since 1871 and we are determined not to let this be the end. We have opened a temporary store on Williams Street, a short distance south of the old store, as well as a furnishing and carpet showroom on Ohoka Road. It’s business as usual, and the family and staff would love to see you visit and support them through this challenging period in the store’s on-going history.