Change of premises for sports retailer

Torpedo7 staff at the Andersons Bay Rd outlet (from left) bike mechanic Sebastien Bossard and sales team members Sophie Letcher and Carole McCaughan move goods while, in the background, workmen affix new signs. Photo: Peter McIntosh
Torpedo7 staff at the Andersons Bay Rd outlet (from left) bike mechanic Sebastien Bossard and sales team members Sophie Letcher and Carole McCaughan move goods while, in the background, workmen affix new signs. Photo: Peter McIntosh
Sporting goods retailer Torpedo7 is moving from Dunedin's CBD to South Dunedin.

There are no immediate plans for the future of the large Lower Stuart St building.

Torpedo7 Dunedin store manager Tim Chapman said the move would be made at the end of the month and all 20 of the present full-time and part-time staff will relocate to the new site in Andersons Bay Rd.

The site is The Warehouse's former Warehouse Stationary building, at its South Dunedin outlet, which has been rebranded.

''It's actually got a larger footprint with more shopping area,'' Mr Chapman said, in comparing the size of the two buildings, and has more parking capacity.

Its present CBD premises, on the corner of Lower Stuart and Cumberland Sts, was for decades known as the A&T Burt Ltd building, a business established in the 1862 gold rush era.

The three-storey building sits on 0.05ha and has a total rateable value of $1.12 million. It was purchased last year by Dunedin company Danmont Property.

The soon to be empty A&T Burt Building in Lower Stuart St.
The soon to be empty A&T Burt Building in Lower Stuart St.
Danmont director Michael Van Aart was contacted and said no decision had been made on its future and that it was still being considered by architects, which was likely to take several months.

He said a redevelopment concept would be worked on, and options could include it remaining a retail outlet or becoming accommodation.

Directly opposite the A&T Burt building, the top three stories of the 109-year-old former Conservation House had recently been redeveloped and opened as a 19-unit boutique hotel, by Queenstown-based Chris James, of Meteor Properties.

In November 2013, Dunedin-founded R&R Sport was bought by Red Sheds operator The Warehouse, for a price understood, but not confirmed, to be several million dollars. Earlier that year, The Warehouse had purchased the separate Torpedo7 outlets. There are now more than 16 Torpedo7 outlets across the country.

The original South Dunedin second-hand sports shop, Recycled Recreation, operated by Grant Vossler in the late 1970s, was taken over by Darryl Tatom, Paul Highton and Dave Norris and later renamed R&R Sport.

It moved to the CBD in the early 1980s.

Mr Highton continued with the company, along with partners Mat Woods and Miff Macdairmid.

The company's nine stores comprised the headquarters in Dunedin, Queenstown, Wanaka, Christchurch (two), Kaikoura, Nelson, Hamilton and Auckland.

Comments

This is awesome - Given how the DCC has axed a fair lot of car parks in the city, I think and hope a lot more companies will decide to move. It might spread Dunedin out more and increase the companies turn over, after all Dunedin isn't that big to drive from one end to the other. Lets hope the removal of carpark back fires on council and shops leave the main part of town. Well doneTorpedo7

So will the CBD become a deserted wasteland because less space is made available for short-term car storage? I don't think so. Perhaps the clientele will change a bit but who says for the worse?

 

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