At the Hamilton City Council’s economic development committee this week, the city’s business leaders discussed at length the prospects for Victoria St.
Harcourts Hamilton managing director Mike Neale said the HCC should look towards George St in Dunedin as a model.
"I was in Dunedin on the weekend and I looked at what the [Dunedin] council have done down there, and they’ve done an amazing job," Mr Neale said.
News of the endorsement of the works, which cost over $110 million and took nearly three years to construct, caught the attention of former Dunedin mayor Aaron Hawkins, one of the project’s most vocal supporters.
"I couldn’t think of a better validation," he said yesterday.
"George St has been a really good example of how to use urban design and local storytelling."
Mr Hawkins said the completion of the project, and the locals’ response to it, had been heartening.
Mr Hawkins said many of the worst predictions about the project did not come to pass.
"It was said it would bring traffic to a grinding halt — but it clearly didn’t."
The street’s pedestrianisation meant there were plenty of opportunities to "activate the area", above and beyond the planned George Street Market next year.
"Really, the sky’s the limit."
Mr Neale told the Otago Daily Times yesterday that regional centres needed to do more for their CBD areas — and Dunedin’s George St was leading the pack.
"You can have shopping centres on the edge of a city, but at the end of the day, people remember a city by the CBD.
"I thought George St had very much given Dunedin a focus."
He appreciated the street’s connections, accessibility and overall design.
"I think the way that it connected between people and vehicles was really good."
