The move has been slammed by Dunedin City councillor David Benson-Pope, who said the last thing Dunedin needed on a corner site in a heritage precinct was another car park.
And the company that owns the building, at 145 High St, and part-owns the next-door Wains Hotel may have a fight on its hands to get consent for any demolition.
The company on Thursday responded to a query from the Otago Daily Times about what was happening at the site.
Through a public relations company spokeswoman it said: ''The Arkwright's building will be demolished and developed into a car park to service guests of Wains Hotel and may be further developed in the future.''
She did not respond to a request for further information.
In 2008, a consent was issued for the building to be developed into a $5million, six-storeyed extension to the Mercure Hotel, but the work never went ahead.
Since then it has remained empty and become dilapidated. The only work done was council-required scaffolding on the footpath to hold up the veranda.
The building is owned by CP Dunedin Ltd, part of the national CP Group, owned by Charles Pandey.
His company describes itself as ''a multi-level, global, diversified property development and investment corporation''.
Dunedin City Council resource consents manager Alan Worthington said demolition would be a discretionary activity under the District Plan, meaning resource consent would be needed.
The 2008 resource consent and building consent had lapsed.
Under the council's second generation district plan (2GP), expected to be completed later this year, the building is in a heritage precinct, identified as a ''character contributing building''.
Cr Benson-Pope said he would be surprised if the council would be ''in any way supportive of a demolition on that site'', and that had been opposed before.
The council knew the importance of ''key corner sites'' in terms of the streetscape and heritage values of areas.
The loss of the Century Theatre on the corner of Princes and Jetty St was an example of a corner site demolished and left as a car park.
''I will be working assiduously to ensure that we don't have the same problem on that [Arkwright's] site.''
Cr Benson-Pope said the council would be happy to look at applications from the company for funding from the city's heritage fund, but ''their neglect of the building is noticeable to the whole Dunedin community, and it is not acceptable''.
Early this year, when commenting on the building, Cr Benson-Pope said he would call for an immediate investigation of the tools the council could use to deal with the owners.
One possibility was a special rating area to improve amenity values, which could mean the city could make improvements at the owners' cost that could improve or shield the buildings from view.
On Thursday, he said the first phase of a response would come to a council committee next week, with a report on at-risk buildings on the heritage register.
The rates advisory working party was looking at what it could do too.
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Comments
DCC should not throw stones because the drains are hidden and not up-kept aye DCC. Didn't read the article come on, think outside the box preserve the street viewed walls reinforce outer the walls from behind, demolish the inner walls, turn it into car park, possibly line the back of the front walls with containers and make them small food stalls street food, coffee shops.
Dunedin needs more multi level car parks like the one placed behind the Former Post office, now a Hotel and Silver Fern Farms Office. If the council approves a
new car park or creates a car park, it should be multi level.