The Waikato District Council is planning a grand opening for the Raglan Wharf rebuild on August 6th. The article reports WDC as saying that the completion is two weeks behind schedule due to bad weather. (I would have thought that two weeks over on a major project like this is a pretty good. Great work Livingstones!)
Most of the buildings on the Raglan Wharf burnt down in a spectacular fire on 13.04.2010. The opening of the $1.9 million rebuild comes 2 years and 4 months later.
District Council GM Water & Facilities Richard Bax said:
“I think the designers have done a great job of trying to recreate the atmosphere of the building and the site and also put something together that’s going to be more functional.
“With Raglan Seafood looking to go back in there, it’ll be the raw fish coming in from fishing boats being available for sale to the public and the fish and chip shop they had before.”
Mr Bax added that three of seven tenancies are now filled and there has been interest in the remaining four. This confirms what the Raglan Website has heard about growing interest in the wharf tenancies. The WDC may face a problem though with a number of closed businesses in Raglan’s main street and as the wharf lease rates were set based on the levels before the 2012 economic slow down.
Raglan Community Board chairman Rodger Gallagher said, “It’ll be good to have the full wharf activities back as it will give the town a much-needed economic and social boost. Getting the wharf working again has been the number one priority for the Board.”
The offical opening will be Waikato Mayor Allan Sanson cutting the ribbon to open the building followed by a community walk through from 1pm to 4pm.