Queenstown mayor Glyn Lewers confirms the Alliance has been tasked with opening the Stanley St carpark — formerly home to the Queenstown Art Centre building and Queenstown Playcentre — on December 20, the day before they stop work for Christmas.
Lewers says the pay-and-display park will initially be finished in gravel, but early next year it’ll be chip-sealed.
"The reason for that is it saves money on medium- to long-term maintenance."
Before that’s done, a section of the carpark will be closed off temporarily.
"We’ve got to put that whopping stormwater pipe across the Stanley St intersection with Ballarat St," Lewers says.
"We’ll probably have to close a little bit of it off again to allow the public transport buses to use it to swing around — they’ll have to come down the arterial road, and then do a little bit of a [U-turn] in there."
Noting there’ll be no charge to use the carpark after 6pm, he’s hoping it’ll entice more locals into town to have dinner over the summer break.
While council is "a little bit concerned" night workers might be tempted to use it, rather than the Lakeview carpark, which "defeats the purpose ... that’s something for businesses to talk to their employees about".
It’s the second time in two years Lewers has managed to get a carpark open within two months in that location.
After being elected in October, 2022, Lewers got the upper Stanley St carpark open in December, 2022 — it was the former site of the QPACT building.
