Unintended consequences of the earthquake-prone building legislation: An evaluation of two city centre regeneration strategies in New Zealand's provincial areas

Abstract

This paper describes two city centre regeneration strategies by reviewing existing literature and carrying out case study analysis to examine the approaches to City Centre Regeneration (CCR) pursued by two provincial areas in New Zealand.
Findings from the exploratory case study analysis of the two examined cities revealed different approaches to CCR: (i) Invercargill – ‘demolition for redevelopment’; and (ii) Whanganui – ‘heritage preservation for regeneration’. Whereas the earthquake-prone building legislation has created logical arguments that have put earthquake-prone historical buildings in the spotlight for demolition in areas with weaker attachment to place, the same legislation has been used as a catalyst to provide opportunities for the seismic upgrade and preservation of the earthquake-prone historical buildings in areas with a stronger attachment to place.
These discoveries imply that the actions (or inactions) of councils shape the way their communities perceive the value of the historical buildings in their city centres. Also, the decreasing retention and increasing demolitions trends of heritage buildings in New Zealand’s provincial city centres as a result of the earthquake-prone building legislation, have now triggered discussions that have contributed to the recent regulatory and financial incentives initiated by the central government to address the unintended consequences of the legislation on the vitality of provincial areas.

Full text

1
Unintended consequences of the earthquake-prone building legislation: An evaluation of two city
centre regeneration strategies in New Zealand’s provincial areas
Itohan Esther Aigwia*, Olga Filippovab, Jason Inghamc, and Robyn Phippsa
a School of Built Environment, Massey University, Auckland, New Zealand
b Department of Property, the University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand
c Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, the University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand
Corresponding author: i.aigwi@massey.ac.nz
Abstract
This paper describes two city centre regeneration strategies by reviewing existing literature and carrying out case
study analysis to examine the approaches to City Centre Regeneration (CCR) pursued by two provincial areas in
New Zealand.
Findings from the exploratory case study analysis of the two examined cities revealed different approaches to
CCR: (i) Invercargill – ‘demolition for redevelopment’; and (ii) Whanganui – ‘heritage preservation for
regeneration’. Whereas the earthquake-prone building legislation has created logical arguments that have put
earthquake-prone historical buildings in the spotlight for demolition in areas with weaker attachment to place, the
same legislation has been used as a catalyst to provide opportunities for the seismic upgrade and preservation of
the earthquake-prone historical buildings in areas with a stronger attachment to place.
These discoveries imply that the actions (or inactions) of councils shape the way their communities perceive the
value of the historical buildings in their city centres. Also, the decreasing retention and increasing demolitions
trends of heritage buildings in New Zealand’s provincial city centres as a result of the earthquake-prone building
legislation, have now triggered discussions that have contributed to the recent regulatory and financial incentives
initiated by the central government to address the unintended consequences of the legislation on the vitality of
provincial areas.
Keywords: New Zealand, Earthquake-prone, Historical buildings, Legislation, Heritage preservation, City centre
regeneration, Provincial areas
1. Introduction
The overall identity of an urban area is typically defined by its city centre. Most city centres transfer deep evident
fingerprints and narratives of the social, economic, and cultural development of urban areas through their built
heritage form (Burayidi, 2013b). While historical buildings in the city centres of many New Zealand’s provincial
areas are characterised by underutilised earthquake-prone historical buildings, the quest to regenerate previously
vibrant city centres, currently experiencing a period of protracted decline, has gained momentum. City centres
embody the overall heritage of a place due to the significant collection of historical buildings they possess (Yakubu
et al., 2017). Also, historic city centres present opportunities and important resources for promoting economic and
socio-cultural sustainability, built heritage preservation, and regulatory compliance through the reuse of historical
buildings (Aigwi, Egbelakin, et al., 2019).
Despite the significance of city centres, literature identifies how technological advances, popularity of private
vehicles, and societal and market forces Post-World War II, induced economic decline in the inner cores of
provincial cities due to mass emigration of businesses, workers, and consumers to bigger cities (Aigwi, Phipps,
Ingham, & Filippova, 2019; Burayidi, 2013b; Fogelson, 2003; Frieden & Sagalyn, 1991; Martinez-Fernandez et
al., 2016; Talen & Jeong, 2019; Ushchev, Sloev, & Thisse, 2015; Wang, 2019). Also, provincial city centres are
typically dominated by low-rise historical buildings and are usually observed to lack the ascendency of corporate
presence about both economic influence and modern structures when compared to bigger cities (Frieden &
Sagalyn, 1991).
In response to decades of city centre decline in provincial centres, a common challenge is the effective
identification of viable uses and financial support for the redevelopment of underutilised or vacant spaces (Faulk,
2006). Other causal factors of city centre decline in provincial areas are linked to: obsolescence factors (Langston,

2
Wong, Hui, & Shen, 2008), impacts of globalisation on local industries (Martinez-Fernandez, Audirac, Fol, &
Cunningham-Sabot, 2012), de-industrialisation (Reckien & Martinez-Fernandez, 2011), building conditions,
socio-economic and building regulations (Yakubu et al., 2017).
While strong demographic and economic forces including economic agglomeration and aggregation, impacts of
global regionalism and globalisation, and ageing population may contribute towards shaping the city centres of
New Zealand’s provincial areas into stagnation or decline within the next 30 years (Wood, 2019), a focus on how
to address stagnation or decline through locally-mobilised urban regeneration pathways is essential for the
revitalisation of provincial areas. These provincial regions are now struggling to regenerate their central areas
with a significant amount of derelict heritage buildings, most of which were built during the recovery period
following the ‘great depression’ that struck New Zealand in the early 20th century (Wilson, 2005).
A high proportion of historical buildings in New Zealand’s provincial city centres have heritage significance and
serve as cornerstones to the areas. These buildings usually reflect the least levels of structural safety during
earthquakes. Threats of natural hazards, especially the recent sequence of the 2010/2011 Canterbury earthquakes
revealed the seismic vulnerability of many historical buildings (Ingham & Griffith, 2010; Potter, Becker, Johnston,
& Rossiter, 2015). In order to promote the resilience of seismically vulnerable buildings to future earthquakes, a
new regulatory mechanism mandated building owners to strengthen their earthquake-prone buildings to the
minimum required New Building Standard (%NBS) rating within a given timeframe otherwise the buildings will
be required to be demolished (MBIE, 2016).
Due to the uncertain financial feasibility of retrofitting earthquake-prone buildings, some owners may take the
‘wait and see’ approach to their historical buildings waiting for the specified legislative timeframes to elapse,
essentially facilitating ‘demolition by neglect’ (Aigwi, Egbelakin, et al., 2019; Beauregard, 2013). This decision
would have implications for the wider community because whatever retrofitting decisions the building owners
make, there would be downstream impacts on the socio-economic environment of the surrounding area. As an
unintended consequence of the earthquake-prone building legislation, provincial town centres are plagued with
underutilised historical buildings (Yakubu et al., 2017), which is a major driving force for the local authorities of
such areas to develop CCR strategies.
The newly enforced Building (Earthquake-prone Buildings) Amendment Act 2016, henceforth (BEPBAA),
mandates local councils to ensure that owners of earthquake-prone buildings in territories comply with the updated
seismic safety requirements (MBIE). Many building owners within those areas, especially the ones with buildings
on the priority thoroughfares, are usually slow to engage with councils to financially commit to the compliance
cost of retrofitting their buildings, partly due to uncertainty relating to return on investments (Aigwi, Phipps,
Ingham, & Filippova, 2020). Since the socio-economic activities that happen in provincial city centres greatly
influence the sustainability of the areas, local councils are implementing city centre regeneration (CCR) initiatives
to create dynamic city centres that are vibrant and attractive places for people to do business, shop and be
entertained.
“City Centre Regeneration” (CCR) involves integrated and widespread visions and actions taken to resolve urban
problems through the planning and establishment of long-lasting economic, social, physical and environmental
improvements in urban areas that have been subjected to prolonged decline (Balsas, 2004; Bromley, Tallon, &
Thomas, 2005; Roberts, Sykes, & Granger, 2016). According to earlier studies, regeneration of the inner cores of
shrinking cities has been very significant in stimulating total city centre vibrancy, mainly because city centres
usually constitute the backbone of historic quarters (Bromley et al., 2005; Rubenstein, 1992). While many local
governments have launched and implemented various CCR strategies over the years, the inner cores of some of
New Zealand’s provincial areas may still be observed to be at the verge of decline (Aigwi, Egbelakin, & Ingham,
2018; Yakubu et al., 2017).
This study therefore presents a review of existing literature and case study analysis to examine the approaches to
CCR pursued by two provincial areas in New Zealand. To deliberate on local policies that can improve their CCR
process through the retention of underutilised historical buildings, the discussion draws together analysis from the
case study areas in comparison with international examples. Recommendations on appropriate programs and
effective responses are provided as a guide for other territorial authorities that are pursuing CCR through the
involvement of historical buildings.

3
2. Existing city centre regeneration (CCR) models
Following years of relative neglect and decline of city centres, triggered by vast decentralisation in the mid-20th
century (Travers & Weimar, 1996), and the loss of main industries and relocation of a big proportion of the local
population to bigger cities, affected local government authorities are pursuing effective ways to attract investments
back to city centres (Balsas, 2000, 2007). This implies that although cities around the world will have to develop
their own strategic approach towards city centre regeneration, there are common grounds and lessons from the
past (Everton & Hughes, 2017). Different strategies have been implemented to regenerate declining city centres
(Frieden & Sagalyn, 1991; Heath, Oc, & Tiesdell, 2013; Helms, 2003; Porter, 1995). Most successful city centre
regeneration attempts (particularly for smaller cities) have been attributed to either the Business Improvement
Districts approach (Davies, 1997; Lloyd, McCarthy, McGreal, & Berry, 2003; Mitchell, 2001), the Main Street
programmes (Francaviglia, 1996; Rifkind, 1977; Robertson, 2004), or the Town Centre Management approach
(Coca-Stefaniak, Parker, Quin, Rinaldi, & Byrom, 2009; Forsberg, Medway, & Warnaby, 1999; Warnaby,
Bennison, & Davies, 2005; Whyatt, 2004).
2.1 Business Improvement District (BID) Model
The BID model for city centre regeneration is a bottom-up approach involving business and property owners
within the boundaries of a specified city centre, proactively imposing a compulsory extra levy (or tax) on
themselves every year in order to collectively fund additional public improvements for the enhancement of their
commercial precincts (Balsas, 2000; Hoyt, 2006; Morçöl & Zimmermann, 2006; Ward, 2007). The BID model
originated in North America and is now widely applied in other parts of the world, including Europe, Africa, Asia,
and Australia (Ward, 2007). In the face of some challenges such as inconsistent nomenclature and absence of
systematic adoption patterns across the US, the development of the BID scheme as a regeneration strategy has
been linked to several political and socio-economic conditions such as: city centre decline following earthquake
and fire disasters; urban sprawl; proliferation of new forms of retail and built environments; declining tax base;
and the embracing of public-private partnership for urban regeneration (Briffault, 1999; Burayidi, 2013a; Lloyd
et al., 2003; Morçöl, Hoyt, Meek, & Zimmermann, 2017; Wolf, 2006). Similarly, these explanations have also
been used to describe the propagation of the BID schemes to regenerate declining city centres in the UK (Lloyd
et al., 2003), Canada (Hernandez & Jones, 2008), and other countries (Ward, 2007), bearing in mind that the
causal factors of city centre decline are often location-specific (Hoyt, 2006).
2.2 Main street approach
The main street approach is used widely in the United States and most parts of Europe and Asia, to regenerate
shrinking city centres and retail districts (Balsas, 2000). The main street programme was developed by the
National Trust for Historic Preservation in the late 1970s to assess the local opportunities of smaller cities in the
United States with a significant proportion of historical buildings, and address city centre shrinkage based on a
four-point agenda incorporating design, organisation, promotion, and economic restructuring (Robertson, 2004).
The focus of the main street approach is on the development of wide-ranging city centre regeneration strategies
to re-activate economic development within a historic preservation context (Beaumont, 1994). The main street
approach has now become a very popular CCR approach adopted by several cities around the world with important
historic precincts, to find new economically viable alternatives for their historic resources within the city centres
(Balsas, 2007).
2.3 Town centre management (TCM) approach
The Town centre management (TCM) approach is a widely used city centre regeneration model in Europe,
particularly in the UK, to boost local economies (Warnaby et al., 2005). A majority of TCM programmes in the
UK apply the broad areas of the “4 As” framework (i.e., attractions, accessibility, action, and amenities) to enhance
the viability and vitality of shrinking city centres (Department of the Environment, 1994). These TCM schemes
often emphasise the importance of public-private partnerships in directing both public and private funds meant
for the commercial regeneration of declining city centres (Balsas, 2000). The application of TCM programmes
for city centre regeneration in the UK have been identified to provide several benefits including enhanced property
values; creation of more friendly, cleaner and secure city centre spaces; stimulation of new retail and recreation
activities in the city centres; and the strengthening of both corporate and tourism markets in the city centre
(Medway, Warnaby, Bennison, & Alexander, 2000).

4
3. City centre regeneration (CCR) strategies
There have been ongoing debates on how best to improve the vitality of provincial city centres (Department of
the Environment, 1994; Faulk, 2006; Frieden & Sagalyn, 1991), primarily through balancing the opportunities
that the reuse of their historical buildings offer in promoting economic sustainability, built heritage preservation,
socio-cultural and regulatory aspects (Aigwi, Egbelakin, et al., 2019). An assessment of several major pathways
to CCR that are commonly adopted include (Faulk, 2006; Robertson, 1995):
3.1.1 Pedestrian-friendly city centres
Pedestrianisation is one of the most popular strategies employed to improve the traffic conditions, environmental
quality, and socio-economic status of city centres, hence, making them more pedestrian-friendly (Robertson,
1995). The volume of pedestrian traffic in a city centre is usually used as a measurement of its positive image and
vitality, rather than economic indicators alone. Sadly, even attractive buildings in the city centre may appear dead
if they do not generate public interest and the need to visit them. To avoid such ‘ghost centres’, some cities in the
United States have successfully used pedestrian malls or skywalk systems to attract more people to the city centres,
which improved the human-scale facilities and open space quality of the city centres (Banerjee, Maurya, &
Lämmel, 2018; Robertson, 1993). This approach tends to be more successful in larger urban centres since
provincial cities are inherently smaller and more pedestrian-friendly (fewer vehicles, narrow streets) and
pedestrian malls may not bring additional foot traffic (Robertson, 1995).
3.1.2 City centre enclosed shopping malls
Over the past four decades, enclosed shopping malls have become a widespread CCR strategy used in the United
States to manage the steady reduction of city centre retail sales, blamed on the vast popularity of suburban malls
(Robertson, 1995). There have been some identified positive spill-over benefits through promoting shoppers
visitations to neighbouring businesses such as restaurants and cafes, hence, increasing a sense of community pride
(West & Orr, 2003). However, the city centre enclosed shopping malls have been criticised (Lorch & Smith,
1993).
As a significant criticism, the ‘fortress effect’ is a pedestrian movement pattern whereby a city centre enclosed
shopping mall would most likely eventually become an island of segregated activities from the remaining parts of
the city centre (Lorch & Smith, 1993). Shoppers would tend to prefer the design, architectural and self-sufficient
and weather-controlled amenities of enclosed shopping malls and ignore the surrounding businesses in the central
areas (Pelloi, 1983). In order to address this fortress effect on surrounding city centre businesses to promote city
centre regeneration, the design of the enclosed shopping mall should be done in such a way that it would integrate
other surrounding businesses on the main street (Faulk, 2006).
The ‘distance-decay effect’ is another pedestrian movement pattern that suggests that the overflow benefits from
the city centre enclosed shopping mall may be unevenly distributed across other businesses located in more than
one or two blocks from the enclosed mall (Davies & Bennison, 1978). These further surrounding businesses may
suffer lesser activity from the enclosed mall’s magnetic force partly because the malls have as retail focal points
by pedestrians (Lorch & Smith, 1993). Furthermore, city centre enclosed shopping malls could greatly promote a
‘commercial gentrification effect’, whereby national chain stores that sell speciality substances tend to suppress
local independent businesses from offering their goods and services to potential shoppers (Gillette Jr, 1985). Apart
from the three effects above, which are identified as criticisms of the city centre enclosed shopping malls, they
have also been criticised due to aesthetic reasons (Frieden & Sagalyn, 1991).
3.1.3 Heritage preservation
Built heritage preservation is a city centre regeneration strategy that takes advantage of the abundance of
underutilised historical buildings in city centres with unique aesthetic characteristics, to redevelop them (Aigwi
et al., 2018; Aigwi, Egbelakin, et al., 2019; Yakubu et al., 2017). The adaptive reuse approach has been widely
applied in the redevelopment of city centre historical buildings through changing their existing uses to viable new
ones (Aigwi et al., 2018; Aigwi, Ingham, Phipps, & Filippova, 2020). Underutilised city centre historical buildings
and structures in larger cities have been successfully redeveloped to special historical districts or festival market
places in the United States (Robertson, 1995). The festival markets in redeveloped city centre historical buildings
are usually characterised by (Robertson, 1995): (i) a rare blend of local speciality shops; (ii) targeted potential
users such as younger adults, erudite, and market affluent people; (iii) strong prominence of food and

5
entertainment; (iv) absence of chain department stores; (v) strong emphasis on architectural or historical themes.
Hence, these features differentiate festival markets from ordinary shopping malls.
Some eminent international successful cases of city centre regeneration through the reuse of historical buildings
as festival markets to preserve built heritage in the United States include the Ghirardelli Square, San Francisco;
the Faneuil Hall, Boston; and the Union Station, St. Louis (Robertson, 1995). Nevertheless, some failures have
also been noted (Sawicki, 1989). Apart from festival markets, most larger cities in the United States and New
Zealand have created city centre historic precincts to regenerate the city centres. Some successful cases of larger
cities in the United States that created historic precincts in their city centres to regenerate the areas include:
Laclede’s Landing, St. Louis; Shockoe Slip, Virginia; Lowertown, St. Paul; and Oldtown, Sacramento (Robertson,
1995). Main Street programmes have also been proven to stimulate city centre regeneration in provincial cities in
the United States such as Hot Springs, South Dakota; Madison, Indiana; and Galesburg, Illinois (Robertson, 2004;
Skelcher, 1992). The success of these Main Street programmes was attributed to the massive support rendered to
the smaller cities by the National Trust for Historic Preservation, based on the four-point agenda of the Main
Street strategy – organisation, promotion, design, and economic restructuring (Robertson, 2004).
In New Zealand, Auckland city council adopted the historic precinct approach for successful regeneration of the
Britomart transport centre, which is now Auckland's central transportation hub (Blight, 2013). Also, Dunedin is
an example of a major provincial city in New Zealand that has successfully used the Warehouse precinct
revitalisation strategy to regenerate its city centre historic area (Dunedin City Council, 2013).
3.1.4 Waterfront development
The older urban settlements usually enjoy proximity to water bodies, which probably was an important reason for
their early establishment in the first place. The success of the waterfront development as a CCR strategy is often
connected to the unique amenity offered to the public by naturally attracting people to the sight, feel, and sound
of water (Sairinen & Kumpulainen, 2006). In the past, public access to waterfronts was very rare as people were
often cut-off by highways, railways and factories. Many historic cities in the United States and Europe in the
1970s (Marshall, 2004), and New Zealand in the early 2000s (Murphy, 2008), only started reconsidering the
opportunities that city centre waterfronts offered, when they were experiencing a significant decline in their land
values and economics of their riverfronts.
A mix of different land uses (e.g., fishing, manufacturing, open space, housing, hospitality/retail, recreation and
tourism) is often incompatible with each other, hence, creating a major problem for waterfront development plans.
To determine waterfront priorities for different uses, they have been classified into water-dependent; water-
related; and water-enhanced uses (McBee, 1992). Whereas the water-dependent uses including ship-building,
ferry terminals and marinas entirely depend on waterfronts to thrive, water-related and water-enhanced uses such
as restaurants, resorts, seafood processing facilities, aquariums, hotels and apartment buildings, are usually
enhanced by the location of the waterfront amenities but can also thrive in other settings.
The preferred use of city centre waterfront developments either as public or private spaces is another big issue
that city centre regeneration decision-makers may face. The use of waterfront developments as public spaces has
been identified to be more advantageous, especially by attracting many people to waterfront events (such as
festival markets) and increasing the city’s tax revenues (Robertson, 1995). On the other hand, private waterfront
developments such as restaurants, hotels, and housing, usually intensify the amount of privatised free open spaces
available for public use, hence restricting public access to waterfront amenities (Beauregard, 1986). Since often
city centres lack adequate open spaces mostly due to their unique grid-system street layouts, it would be a sensible
city centre regeneration strategy to develop waterfront amenities for public use. Examples of cities that have
successfully developed attractive waterfront public spaces to revitalize their city centres include: (i) the United
States – Rochester in New York, Portland in Oregon, St. Louis, and Louisville in Milwaukee (Robertson, 1995);
(ii) New Zealand – Auckland city’s Viaduct waterfront redevelopment project which started in the early 2000’s
(Murphy, 2008), and the Wynyard Quarter regeneration by Panuku Development which started in 2011 (Panuku
Development Auckland, 2019); (iii) UK – Chatham in Kent (Jacobs, 2004); (iv) Canada – Toronto (Lehrer &
Laidley, 2008); (v) Singapore – Clarke Quay (Chang & Huang, 2011); and South Africa – Cape town (Visser &
Kotze, 2008).

6
3.1.5 Office space development
The office space development strategy through the transformation of city centres into administrative, financial,
and professional services centres, is typically the focus of most corporate-centre approaches to city centre
regeneration (Frieden & Sagalyn, 1991). The corporate-centre approach allows different business units to come
under one corporate umbrella (Ides, 2002), and can impact the performance of multi-business firms through the
main economic activities, additional value activities, and shared services of the businesses (Pettifer, 1998). This
city centre regeneration strategy usually targets educated professionals, tourists, and convention attendees, who
may be attracted to the central part of a city with a lot of office spaces and corporate services, and are likely to
use surrounding business centres, hotels, restaurants, and cafes located in the city centres (Faulk, 2006).
However, it would be difficult to attract many corporate offices to provincial city centres due to their reduced
commercial vitality. Also, a boom in office space development using the cooperate-centre strategy in the United
States in the 1960s led to the construction of too many city centre offices, which had several consequences
(Dowall, 1986). For example, the oversupply of pre-existing office spaces in the 1980s made it more challenging
to get tenants, resulting in a rise in the number of underutilised and devalued office spaces, especially in older
inner-city buildings (Robertson, 1995). While this reduction in the value of city centre office spaces from
underutilised buildings led to a corresponding reduction in the tax base of cities, the capabilities of other activities
in city centres were diminished, hence, greatly reducing the popularity of office space developments for CCR.
3.1.6 Special activity-based facilities
Significant public infrastructure is often located in city centres. Facilities such as stadiums, showgrounds,
convention centres, are often located in such a way that their contribution to the regeneration of a city centre
would generate spillover benefits for nearby businesses such as restaurants, hotels, cafés, retail stores, etc.
Subsequently, these spillover benefits on surrounding businesses would contribute to livening-up city centre main
streets during weekday evenings and weekends; hence, regenerating blighted central areas (McBee, 1992).
Activity-based facilities could vary in their schedule patterns. For instance, while convention centres and
showgrounds may be able to schedule events throughout the year, stadiums may not. Nevertheless, a common
issue with activity-based facilities is related to public cost, which in most cases are insufficient for their
maintenance (Robertson, 1995). Also, when activity-based generators are not in use, they could become dead
spaces. Due to their specific functions and sizes, it could be challenging to integrate the architectural design of
special activity-based facilities with other existing buildings in central areas (Rosentraub, Swindell, Przybylski,
& Mullins, 1994).
3.1.7 Transportation improvement
Sometimes inadequate transportation infrastructure can discourage the public from visiting the city centre. For
example, inadequate parking spaces, travel time/distance, safety concerns, and traffic congestion (Faulk, 2006).
Whereas safety concerns and traffic congestion are less prevalent in the central areas of provincial cities than in
larger ones, parking could be an issue for any size of cities. Moreover, public transport improvement has a
significant role to play in the regeneration of provincial city centres where they are either rare or non-existent. As
a result, people tend to wait for longer durations to be able to commute to city centres, which could be a major
deterring factor for the use of public transport in smaller cities (O'Sullivan, 2012).
3.1.8 Housing and socio-cultural attractions
Various cities in the United States and Europe have invested in housing and socio-cultural attractions as a way of
attracting more people into city centres to regenerate the areas (Faulk, 2006). The adaptive reuse of inner-city
historical buildings such as mills and warehouses to hotels and residential units, the new construction of multi-
storey and low-rise housing apartments have also been found to contribute significantly towards enhancing the
vitality of city centres after standard business hours (Birch, 2002). Also, when special activity-based facilities are
built in a city centre, there is usually substantial investment in the construction of new hotels, in anticipation to
accommodate tourists, sports fans, visitors and conventioneers (Robertson, 1995). Other forms of socio-cultural
attractions, such as street art on the walls of city centre historical buildings (Whanganui District Council, 2019c),
restoration of old movie theatres and opera houses, libraries, and museums, may also help to draw more locals
and visitors to the city centres.

7
4. Prevalence of underutilised historical buildings in New Zealand’s provincial city centres
City centres constitute a substantial part of a city’s image and identity, sense of community, economic
development appeal, and tax base from property rates, and also, embody the overall heritage of a place due to the
significant collection of historical buildings they possess (Burayidi, 2013b). Many historical buildings in New
Zealand’s provincial city centres may be underutilised for a variety of reasons, including building conditions,
socio-economic, and regulatory factors (Yakubu et al., 2017). With a focus on regulatory aspects, some owners
may be willing to comply with the BEPBAA but are not be able to afford the cost of the seismic upgrade. On the
other hand, some owners may be uncertain about the cost implications of seismic strengthening in comparison
with the return on investment on their historical buildings (Aigwi et al., 2018). While a majority of these buildings
may not qualify for national heritage incentives, it is also difficult for owners to secure bank loans and insurance,
due to their vulnerability to earthquakes (Ingham & Griffith, 2010).
However, in situations where it becomes hard to attract tenants to these buildings due to seismic safety concerns
for users, the buildings may start experiencing a drop in their value (Yakubu et al., 2017). A more extended period
of vacancy could lead to a reduction in the value of the buildings. In some instances, building owners may go as
far as reducing their rents, as a desperate measure to keep their existing tenants. Alternatively, owners may opt to
transfer the burden of strengthening and responsibility of maintaining historical buildings to other investors,
especially when the taxes on the properties begin to outweigh their value (Listokin, 2017). At this stage, it becomes
difficult to find willing buyers.
Furthermore, owners may apply for building consents from local councils to demolish their underutilised
earthquake-prone historical buildings and rebuild, or decide to defer maintenance on their buildings when building
consent applications for demolitions are unsuccessful (Yakubu et al., 2017). Hence, a scenario of where out-of-
town property owners make poor maintenance decisions about their assets (Dubin, 1998), and neglected historical
buildings would emerge in the affected city centres. Consequently, there would be significant adverse effects on
surrounding property values, especially from larger and more visible underutilised historical buildings also
referred to as “White elephants” (Moe & Wilkie, 1997) in the main streets of New Zealand’s provincial city
centres.
5. Significance of ‘attachment to place’ towards city centre regeneration (CCR)
Research on the theories and contribution of ‘attachment to place’ regarding urban regeneration projects and its
inferences for planning has increased within the last two decades. ‘Attachment to place’ refers to the emotional
bond formed by people with their communities (Altman & Low, 2012; Brown, Perkins, & Brown, 2003;
Chukwudumogu, Levy, & Perkins, 2019; Manzo & Perkins, 2006; Theodori, 2001). The influence of ‘attachment
to place’ on the behaviours and motivations of communities in urban development and planning processes, have
been linked to some socio-cultural actors such as: length of residence and familiarity (Hay, 1998; Taylor, 1996),
sense of rootedness and bondedness (Vitek & Jackson, 1996), sense of community (Perkins & Long, 2002; Pretty,
Chipuer, & Bramston, 2003), and value of shared identity (Hummon, 1992) within a community. These actors are
often intertwined to illustrate the significance of ‘attachment to place’ regarding the commitment and participation
of community members during city centre regeneration pursuits.
Communities with residents that have stronger levels of ‘attachment to place’ often contribute more efforts to
urban regeneration project implementations (Manzo & Perkins, 2006), because such residents usually have higher
motivation to stay, preserve, protect and make improvements to their shared community assets (Mihaylov &
Perkins, 2014; Plunkett, Phillips, & Ucar Kocaoglu, 2018). However, some factors such as threats from disasters,
derelict built assets, unrealistic health and safety requirements, and low quality of life of a community may disrupt
the level of residents’ commitment towards having a stronger ‘attachment to place’ (Mihaylov & Perkins, 2014).
While CCR encompasses a range of community actions and policies guided by a combination of strategies,
theories, frameworks, and practice constructs, the connectedness of people to a place could either be reinforced
or weakened, through their development capacity of the opportunities of the place, usually resulting in a higher
level of social capital (Plunkett et al., 2018). Hence, the ability to develop and make use of this social capital to
stimulate potential CCR outcomes through constructive and cooperative activities remains the chief component
for the sustainable regeneration of urban areas (Mihaylov & Perkins, 2014). The significance of ‘attachment to
place’ to CCR, therefore, presents an opportunity to discover ideas and influences regarding shared values and
experiences towards CCR.

8
6. Case Studies
The case study method (Yin, 2017) has been adopted for this research to describe the city centre regeneration
(CCR) strategies pursued by two provincial areas (Whanganui and Invercargill) in New Zealand, and examine
their approach to CCR. These two provincial areas (see Figure 1) have been chosen because of their ongoing
socio-economic stagnation or decline in their city centres (Aigwi, Phipps, et al., 2019). Whanganui and
Invercargill were among the first five earliest and most prominent cities in New Zealand (Aigwi, Phipps, et al.,
2019; Thorns & Schrader, 2010), and are large urban areas in the medium seismic hazard zone of New Zealand
(MBIE, 2017; Statistics New Zealand, 2018b).
The two case studies – Invercargill and Whanganui, were both established in the early-1900’s and were used for
early settlement in New Zealand. With their strategic locations, both towns had plans for significant population
growth and expansion and invested heavily in the building stock and infrastructure. Following the era of the great
depression (Wilson, 2005), World War II, first and second oil crises, and the floating of New Zealand’s dollar in
1985 (Decker & McCracken, 2018), the population and economic growth they had anticipated did not realise.
This was partly because there was underperformance in their main industries (i.e., farming, mining, housing and
manufacturing) in terms of income status and employment (Statistics New Zealand, 2018a). Also, some upshots
of the 2011/2012 Canterbury earthquakes exposed how New Zealand’s provincial areas differ from the bigger
cities in the aspects of risks, socio-economic physiognomies, expertise, challenges, and opportunities, regarding
urban resilience (Eaqub, 2014). Loss of employment and vulnerabilities of building stock exposed by the
Canterbury earthquakes resulted in a mass movement of businesses, workers, and consumers to bigger cities
(Burayidi, 2013b; Martinez-Fernandez et al., 2016; Talen & Jeong, 2019; Ushchev et al., 2015). Auckland and
Wellington being the economic and government hubs of New Zealand are two big cities that have provided better
economic opportunities and ascendancy of corporate presence, and hence, have attracted the vibrant younger
populations from these provincial areas over the years (Aigwi, Phipps, et al., 2019).
6.1 The city of Whanganui
Whanganui is a major provincial city in the Manawatu-Whanganui region, historically used as an early site for
pre-European Māori settlement in New Zealand, and was among the earliest largest towns to become a city in
New Zealand during the mid-19th century (Grimes & Tarrant, 2013). Whanganui is currently one of New
Zealand’s 13 large urban areas (Statistics New Zealand, 2017). The city is on the west coast of New Zealand’s
North Island and is nicknamed “the river city” because of its north-western location around the entrance of the
Whanganui river, which is the third-longest navigable watercourse in New Zealand. Whanganui’s current
population count is 45,309 inhabitants (Statistics New Zealand, 2018b). The city’s local economy thrived under
its agricultural sector, particularly from dairy and meat production. Whanganui first started experiencing a change
in its socio-economic prosperities in the 1970s, which has been attributed to its failing growth prospects, and
shortage of skilled workforce over the years (Baxendine, Cochrane, Pool, & Poot, 2004). The city has also
experienced a significant rise in its ageing population within the last two decades (Filippova & Noy, 2019).

9
Figure 1 Map of New Zealand showing the case study areas. Source: (Google Maps, 2019b)
Whanganui’s city centre spatially features a semi-complex system of narrow roads and courtyards that
accommodates its historical urban fabric, with buildings that are typically between three to four storeys high. Two
squares (i.e., Trafalgar and Majestic squares) and one main street (i.e., Victoria avenue) represent the commercial
inner-core of Whanganui. Victoria Avenue is the main retail area of Whanganui’s city centre but has been
observed to be losing population due to mass emigration of businesses along with their employees to other
peripheral areas. Currently, Victoria avenue is characterised by many underutilised or vacant pre-1935 historical
buildings, which may be due to certain factors that are directly or indirectly linked to mass emigration of
businesses from the city centre, such as regulatory compliance issues with the recently amended BEPBAA by
building owners (Yakubu et al., 2017). As a result, most of these commercial historical building owners are under
pressure to seismically strengthen their buildings, even as they may solely rely on rents to pay for the cost of the
seismic upgrade and other building expenses (Filippova & Noy, 2019). In some situations, the buildings may not

10
generate enough income to cover such expenses. Also, when owners of affected earthquake-prone historical
buildings fail to keep their tenants due to seismic safety concerns from the tenants, and disruptive seismic upgrade
process, their ability to raise capital for seismic upgrade works on their buildings decreases, hence, promoting
underuse and obsolescence of these buildings (Yakubu et al., 2017).
A CCR strategy was initiated in 2010 after a sectional review of Whanganui district council’s (WDC) plan
(Whanganui District Council, 2016). The CCR strategy focused on providing coherent endeavours that would
guide infrastructure development, changes in plans and resource consents, towards attracting more people into the
commercial city centre of Whanganui (refer to Figure 2 for the scope of the project). This CCR strategy is quite
different from an ad-hoc programme because it offered a general plan that extensively balances differing
objectives and interests in the direction of achieving sustainable outcomes for the area through realistic activities,
priorities and timelines. Besides, the strategy was intended for the following reasons (Whanganui District Council,
2016): to (i) develop an integrated approach for the reconciliation of multiple interests within the city centre; (ii)
guide decision-making regarding WDC’s resource management and infrastructure planning; (iii) guide
redevelopment and retrofitting of historical buildings to harness the full potential of the city centre concerning
encouraging private investors; (iv) determine how to improve and integrate existing public spaces, reserves and
features within the city centre; (v) guide funding and design for infrastructure, facilities and services in consecutive
10-year plans to accomplish the objectives of the community; and (vi) facilitate a resilient and vibrant future for
Whanganui’s city centre, which will in turn provide economic, socio-cultural, and environmental benefits for the
entire city.
The initiation and development of Whanganui’s CCR strategy was a combined effort between the local council
staff and representatives from the following stakeholder groups (Whanganui District Council, 2016): (i) retailers
and business group (including Mainstreet Whanganui Inc., Earthquake-Prone Building Taskforce, Maori
Economy and Business Development Group, Whanganui and Partners, Visit Whanganui, and real estate
businesses); (ii) Iwi representatives; (iii) community and social organisations (such as Road Safety, Citizens
Advice Bureau, Life to the Max Trust, Community Patrol, Sustainable Whanganui Trust, and Fire Service); (iv)
arts and culture sector (comprising Royal Whanganui Opera House, Sarjeant Art Gallery, Artists open studios,
Quartz Studio Ceramics Museum, Rayner Brothers Gallery, Whanganui Regional Museum, NZ Society of Artists
in Glass, Spacemonster, and Whanganui Musicians Club, etc.); and (v) Universal College of Learning (UCOL).
Whanganui’s ongoing CCR programme is getting some central government financial support including Heritage
Equip (Heritage EQUIP, 2019), the Regional Culture and Heritage Fund, and, the National Heritage Preservation
Incentive Fund (Heritage New Zealand, 2019a). The key endeavours of the CCR alongside its rationale and
analysis were directed towards making Whanganui’s assets and qualities more noticeable through the following
proposals (Whanganui District Council, 2016): (i) targeting to bring back retailers that are currently missing from
the city centre; (ii) providing immense support for the entire retail core; (iii) pursuing big businesses to start up in
the inner-city; (iv) introducing an art studio to the city centre that would be shared by targeted artists; (v) targeting
activation-focussed public art; (vi) presenting an Iwi dimension (Pool, 2013) in the inner-city; (vii) offering some
basic visitor necessities and proposing several new attractions for potential visitors; (viii) introducing new events
and making changes to improve the existing ones; (ix) supporting the planned innovation quarter; (x) proposing
programmes focused on attracting residential occupancy into the inner-city, improving the existing built form,
and providing assistance with strengthening earthquake-prone historical building; (xi) Upgrading some targeted
inner-city public spaces including footpaths; (xii) reviewing and updating the role of Mainstreet Whanganui; and
(xiii) preparing a prospectus.

11
Figure 2 Spatial scope of Whanganui’s city centre regeneration strategy. Source: (Whanganui District Council, 2016)
6.2 The city of Invercargill
Invercargill is the southernmost major provincial city in the Southland regional area, located on the South Island
of New Zealand. With a distance of about 18km north of Bluff, the city lies within fertile farmland bordered by
vast marine reserves and conservation land areas. The present population count for Invercargill is 54,204 people
(Statistics New Zealand, 2018b). Invercargill was also one of the earliest largest towns in New Zealand (Grimes
& Tarrant, 2013), and as well, is one of New Zealand’s 13 large urban areas (Statistics New Zealand, 2017).
Historically, the city’s local economy prospered from its vast involvement in dairy and sheep farming (Thorns &
Schrader, 2010). However, the city of Invercargill suffered its first significant losses in job opportunities and
economic decline when its export-led farming industries were affected by inflation across New Zealand, due to
the first and second global oil crises between 1975 to 1978, which led to the floating of the New Zealand Dollar
(Decker & McCracken, 2018). By the early 1980s, Invercargill’s population was the fastest declining in
Australasia.
Invercargill’s city centre has two wide main streets (Tay and Dee), and other prominent ones (Esk, Eye, Tweed,
Ness, Don, Tyne, Spey and Forth), that were named after rivers in Scotland. These streets are characterised by

12
blocks of historical precincts with collections of historical buildings constructed between the late 19th and early
20th centuries. Similar to Whanganui, the city began experiencing city centre decline and high vacancy rates of
historical buildings, especially the upper floors in the 1980s. New Zealand’s recently amended BEPBAA may
have also contributed to the underuse of these significant proportion of historical buildings.
The Invercargill rejuvenation programme (see Figure 3) was launched in 2015 as one of the nine projects of the
Southland Regional Development Strategy – SoRDS, to grow the region’s population with 10,000 additional
people by the year 2025 (Southland Regional Development Strategy, 2016). Due to a prolonged concern regarding
Southland’s socio-economic vulnerability and viability, the SoRDS strategy document offers an opportunity for
the prosperity of cities in the Southland region, while focussing on building the socio-economic capacity and
capability through the involvement of local leadership and national resources where applicable (Southland
Regional Development Strategy, 2016).
Figure 3 Invercargill’s city centre rejuvenation strategy. Source: (Southland Regional Development Strategy, 2016)
As one of the cities covered by the SoRDS strategy, Invercargill may currently lack the pull to attract and hold
the required number of people due to its abundance of old underutilised historical buildings in its city centre that
are in deteriorating conditions. Just like the case of Whanganui, these buildings are currently struggling to attract
quality tenants whose rents would be sufficient in offsetting the cost of maintaining and upgrading the buildings
to relevant building code safety requirements. The approach that is being adopted by ICC to create a vibrant,
compact and contemporary city centre, is by “skipping a generation” and introducing new modern development
in the city centre, in order to meet the SoRDS year 2025 deadline (Southland Regional Development Strategy,
2016).
In line with the Resource Management Act 1991 (RMA, 1991), ICC in its district plan aims to use the ‘Precinct
approach’ to attain a socio-economically vibrant and pedestrian-focused city centre through the introduction of

13
new developments and heritage protection in the area. The basis of the adopted precinct approach to city centre
regeneration is due to the area’s inability to rediscover a vibrant and sustainable character for itself after extensive
periods of demographic, retail and economic decline, despite the abundance of historical buildings in the central
district. As a result, the majority of the existing Edwardian and Victorian historical fabric is in disrepair or
underutilised (Invercargill City Council, 2018).
Findings from an economic performance survey of Invercargill’s city centre between the period of 2000 and 2017
revealed that there was (Invercargill City Council, 2018): (i) 19% decrease in the total number of businesses across
the city centre compared to a 26% increase in nearby suburban areas; (ii) 22% decrease in the total workforce
across the city centre compared to 28% increase in nearby suburban areas; (iii) 30% decrease in the proportion of
retail businesses across the city centre compared to 13% increase in nearby suburban areas; and (iv) 29% decrease
in the proportion of retail employment across the city centre compared to 61% increase in nearby suburban areas.
Accordingly, this economic analysis gives a clear narrative of how despite gradual population decline in the area,
there is more spending in suburban centres compared to the slow spending in the city centre (Invercargill City
Council, 2018). The implication being a shift in the shopping patterns of residents and visitors, who have
increasingly preferred not to shop in the city centre, as they can meet all their commercial and retail needs in the
suburban centres.
Whereas city centre residential living has been noted to be uneconomically viable when promoting inner-city
vitality in Invercargill, a joint venture (referred to as the HWCP Management Ltd) was formed between private
interest groups (51% stake), and ICC’s property unit (49% stake), to facilitate the redevelopment of a commercial
retail precinct in the city centre (HWCP, 2019). Invercargill’s HWCP inner-city redevelopment block proposes to
create a bustling central business district by demolishing and redeveloping most parts of an entire block of existing
buildings on the pre-existing site (HWCP, 2019). This city centre regeneration approach focuses on the
redevelopment of an entire city block of underutilised (and mostly earthquake-prone) historical buildings within
the boundaries of four major streets in the inner-city. The final redevelopment project aims to offer a functional
precinct that will engage customer experience while integrating the new development with the surrounding
historical buildings.
Furthermore, the Invercargill Licensing Trust (ILT) proposed the demolition of a class two heritage building on
the local district plan, and the development of a new hotel – the ILT hotel project, as a strategy to promote
Invercargill’s city centre (Invercargill City Council, 2018). The eight-level ILT hotel is proposed to incorporate
80 suites, bars, cafés, restaurants, parking slots, and other guest amenities.
7. Impacts of the earthquake-prone building legislation on CCR in the two cities
The discussed CCR efforts in Whanganui and Invercargill imply that although the cities fall under the medium to
high-risk seismic hazard areas of New Zealand, they may have different approaches to the commercial
revitalisation of their inner cities. Consequently, some examples are used to explain the attitude of the public
regarding the contribution of historical buildings to their CCR strategies, and the unintended consequences of the
existing BEPBAA on the preservation of the buildings.
7.1 Whanganui
The Thains building is an integral part of Whanganui’s Edwardian-styled gateway to the main street of the city
centre, located at the corner of Taupo Quay and Victoria avenue (see Figure 4). It is a three-storey unreinforced
masonry building (see Figure 5) with some proportion of timber construction materials (Aigwi, Egbelakin, et al.,
2019). The building is listed as a heritage class B building under the local council’s district plan. Whereas the
ground floor was affected by flooding in 2015, it is currently an earthquake-prone building with a severely low
5% NBS rating (Aigwi, Egbelakin, et al., 2019). Consequently, the building owner made a resource consent
application to Whanganui District Council on August 2017 to demolish the building. The owner cited the
feasibility of seismic strengthening and lack of tenants as some of the reasons in favour of demolition.

14
Figure 4 Whanganui’s main street entrance
Figure 5 Thains Building
Source: Authors
Since retaining the building was no longer an option that was economically feasible from the owner’s perspective,
a proposal was made for the community or the council to either compensate the full seismic upgrade and
refurbishment cost or purchase the building if they required it to be saved. Without any luck, the owner further
submitted to the council to approve the demolition consent as an incentive to enhance the prospects of selling the
building to a buyer who could seismically upgrade and redevelop the building. However, as members of the
Whanganui’s earthquake-prone buildings (EQPB) task force, Mainstreet Whanganui, and other heritage advocates
were concerned about the heritage significance of the building to the city’s central streetscape, they sought for
alternative options to preserve the building. Opportunities for seismic strengthening cost-sharing with
neighbouring building owners were also explored by the EQPB task force but not pursued.
In May 2018 Whanganui district council called for public submissions on the application for demolition by the
owner of Thains building (Whanganui District Council, 2019a). The council received 32 submissions that opposed
the application to demolish Whanganui’s Thains building from a total of 33 submissions, with only one neutral
submission (Whanganui Chronicle, 2019b). A primary concern of most of the submitters that opposed the
demolition consent was that it would create an irrevocable loss of the region’s substantial heritage assets, and
negatively impact the values of historic heritage, which is contrary to Whanganui district council’s heritage
policies and objectives provided in the district plan. Another concern by the public opponents was that an approved
demolition consent for the Thains building would generate a precedent for more demolitions of inner-city
historical buildings on Victoria avenue – Whanganui’s main street.
The general theme of the opponents’ recommendation was for Whanganui district council to work with the Thains
building owner to establish the best alternatives for seismic strengthening and reuse, which could offer useful
information and future direction for owners of other underutilised earthquake-prone buildings in Whanganui’s
city centre. Otherwise, the council would have to bear the burden of dealing with an abundance of old historical
buildings that have been abandoned by their owners due to the high cost of seismic strengthening and low return
on investment. The demolition consent application was declined in August 2018 (RNZ, 2019). This decision
validated a ‘heritage preservation’ approach to city centre regeneration in Whanganui with the following
supporting factors including: (i) inconsistencies with the Resource Management Act 1991 (RMA, 1991); (ii) the
inability of the application to demonstrate an exploration of all feasible alternatives leading to demolition as the
last option; and (iii) the community support towards retaining heritage buildings.
After the unsuccessful building consent application for demolition, the owner of Thains building eventually sold
it to one of the submitters who advocated to preserve the building during the public hearing process. Though the
new owner intended to retain and preserve the historical building and was already planning to close for renovations
on 31st July 2019 after receiving support from Whanganui Heritage Grant Fund (Whanganui Chronicle, 2019a),
the Thains building was devastated by a fire that broke out in the upper floor residences on 20th July 2019. The
fire made the building to be structurally unstable (Whanganui Chronicle, 2019c). Following inspections and
assessments by WDC’s building control officers, an independent engineer, and fire investigators, on the extent of
damage and risks the Thains building would pose to passer-by and adjacent buildings and businesses, the building
was deemed a ‘Dangerous Building’ under sections 121 and 124 of New Zealand’s Building Act 2004 (MBIE,
2004). Based on the advice from the post-fire risk assessment and investigations of the building ( see Figures 6a,
6b and 6c), a resource consent application to demolish the building was approved by WDC in the interests of
public safety (Whanganui Chronicle, 2019c; Whanganui District Council, 2019b).

15
Figure 6a
Figure 6b
Figure 6c
The extent of damage caused by fire. Source: (Whanganui Chronicle, 2019c)
7.2 Invercargill
The ongoing city centre regeneration strategies in Invercargill are discussed using the situations surrounding two
significant projects in the area (refer to Figure 7) – HWCP inner-city redevelopment block, and the ILT Hotel
development.
Figure 7 Invercargill city centre regeneration project scope. Source: (Google Maps, 2019a)
7.2.1 HWCP inner-city redevelopment block
The HWCP Management Ltd made an application to Invercargill City Council (ICC) in October 2018 for resource
consent to redevelop a block of several underutilised commercial historical buildings within the city centre into a
multi-faceted facility to be named ‘Invercargill Central’ (Invercargill City Council, 2019). The proposed location
for the HWCP redevelopment project has boundaries with four major central streets (i.e., Dee, Esk, Kelvin, and
Tay streets; on their east, south, west, and north sides, respectively). See Figure 8.

16
Figure 8 HWCP inner-city redevelopment block. Source: (Woods, Cropper, & Cawte, 2019)
The application proposed two stages of redevelopment to rescue Invercargill’s city centre from its existing decline
trajectory, and, for the inner-city which has accumulated more than a century’s historical building stock with
heritage elements, to start functioning credibly as the entertainment and retail core of the city through the
reinforcement of feasible commercial activities by 2021. The current cost estimate for capital expenditure on the
HWCP project was between $180 to 200 million NZD (Invercargill City Council, 2019).
The applicant proposed the following activities in the first stage (Invercargill City Council, 2019): (i) demolition
of two Category-2 heritage buildings on the national heritage list (Heritage New Zealand, 2019b), and assessed
locally to have medium heritage values; (ii) alteration to the façade of an additional Category-2 heritage building
on the national list (Heritage New Zealand, 2019b), and assessed locally to have a high heritage value; (iii)
demolition of 13 historical buildings characterised as Class-2 historical buildings in ICC’s district plan, and
assessed to have low heritage values; (iv) retention of the façades of three Class-2 historical buildings with optimal
architectural components on Esk street; and (v) incorporation of one Category-1 heritage building on the national
heritage list (Heritage New Zealand, 2019b). A total of 16 historical buildings in the ICC’s district plan were
affected. Additionally, a multi-faceted facility was proposed for the second stage of the redevelopment to include:
anchor retail shops, boutiques, housing apartments and office blocks (targeted at attracting extra 1500 people daily
to the city centre), restaurants and food courts, an enclosed multi-level carpark (with about 850 parking slots),
outdoor dining spaces and open-air alleyways, and, a central medical facility (Invercargill City Council, 2019).
The technical team of the applicant argued that the physical situations of most of the existing historical buildings
in the proposed redevelopment site did not match up with the economic reality of rejuvenating them (Invercargill
City Council, 2019). This argument was due to the combination of some broader economic forces, the awareness
of their seismic vulnerability and compliance to the recently amended BEPBAA, activating an unsustainable and
unbridgeable gap between the cost of seismic retrofit and enough return on investment. They also argued that the

17
destruction and redevelopment of a significant proportion of old historical buildings would be deemed appropriate
in addressing the scale of the vulnerability of the area, to bring back vibrancy to the city centre.
Besides, after undergoing engineering assessments, the seismic capacity of majority of the listed historical
building stock that were planned for demolition in the HWCP inner-city redevelopment were found to be less than
33% NBS rating (MBIE, 2016), with about 90% of the buildings scoring between 10% to 20% NBS ratings
(Invercargill City Council, 2019). Figure 9 depicts the seismic rating summary of these buildings. Also, the
feasibility of retaining the façades of most of the buildings on the block was very low, when issues such as likely
strengthening costs, technical challenges and the originality of their heritage parapets were explored by during the
engineering assessments (Invercargill City Council, 2019).
Figure 9 Seismic assessment of historical buildings within the inner-city redevelopment block. Source: (McDougall &
Marriott, 2019)
The public was notified on October 2018, to give their opinions about the HWCP inner-city redevelopment
resource consent application. Out of an overall 44 submissions, 24 were in support of the application, ten opposed,
and nine were neutral (Invercargill City Council, 2019). The recommendations of those in support of the
application were based on arguments that the seismic strengthening costs versus the loss of heritage values of the
listed historical buildings to be demolished, would adequately balance the positive CCR impacts of the
application, in line with the sustainability principles of the Resource Management Act 1991 (RMA, 1991) and the
proposed policies and objectives of ICC’s district plan.
Those that opposed the application emphasised the disproportionately low mitigation measures for the heritage
that would be lost through demolition and façadism, in comparison to the proposed mitigation measures in the
application. Accordingly, they were more of the point of view that the HWCP project should have emphasised on
the retention of heritage character through incorporating the preservation and reuse of the historical buildings in
a more persuasive manner (Invercargill City Council, 2019). Moreover, the recommendations from the submitters
that remained neutral on application emphasised that, although a significant loss of heritage elements after
demolition would negatively impact the coherence of Invercargill’s city centre streetscape, sacrificing a number
of these historical buildings for the project would eventually promote a sense of place and create a huge economic
boost for future development of the wider city centre (Invercargill City Council, 2019).

18
The HWCP application for resource consent was deemed worthy of endorsement by the decision commissioners
of the hearing process and was approved in June 2019 with no submissions for appeal made (Invercargill City
Council, 2019). The conditions for approval required the consent holder to: (i) make funds available (i.e., $20,000
NZD/year for ‘Anchor tenants’ that would be occupying at least 5,000m² of the redevelopment site) for the
Neighbourhood Retailers Group (NRG) to manage the vibrancy of retail activities in the city centre before the
commencement of any demolition; (ii) lodge recordings of any alterations or demolitions of the affected heritage
buildings with Heritage New Zealand and ICC; (iii) maintain and preserve the Category-1 heritage building (Bank
of New South Wales building) on the corner of Dee Street in accordance with its registered covenant, and ensure
that any building consent application for any adjacent or adjoining new buildings to the former bank building,
must include recommendations from a conservation architect; (iv) prior to alteration of any heritage building,
submit a façade retention plan prepared by a qualified conservation architect and engineer to ICC for authorisation;
(v) ensure the reuse of salvaged heritage materials from the demolished buildings in the construction of the new
replacement buildings and other building projects; and (vi) disseminate all information gained from archaeological
investigations, historical research, and the heritage recordings of the altered or demolished buildings, to the public
at every completion stages of the redevelopment project.
It could be understood for the Invercargill case study that, the management of historical buildings in the CCR
strategy, aims to preserve only the best heritage elements of the buildings, hence, encouraging regeneration of the
city centre through demolition and rebuild. The implication of the circumstances surrounding the approval of the
HWCP redevelopment project irrespective of the significant loss of heritage buildings from demolition validates
a ‘demolition for redevelopment’ approach to city centre regeneration in Invercargill.
7.2.2 The Invercargill Licensing Trust (ILT) hotel
The Invercargill Licencing Trust (ILT) was established in 1944 through public election to monopolise the sale
and supply of alcohol in Invercargill, with an obligation of investing the profits on community development
projects. In line with the Southland Regional Development Strategy to upsurge the region’s population with
10,000 additional people by the year 2025 (Southland Regional Development Strategy, 2016), the ILT submitted
resource consent application to ICC in September 2018 for (Invercargill City Council, 2018): (i) the demolition
of a Victorian-styled historical building including other adjoining existing buildings on the site without heritage
classification; and (ii) the construction and operation of an innovative eight-level hotel building that would
integrate 80 hotel suites, a café, a restaurant, function venues, bars, parking spaces, and guest amenities – see
Figure 10. The former T&G building also referred to as ‘Caledonian’, is in a corner location at 73-81 Dee Street
in Invercargill’s city centre. It was built in 1885 and is currently a Class-2 historical building in ICC’s district plan
(Invercargill City Council, 2018).
Figure 10a Existing Caledonian building within the
streetscape. Source: (Invercargill City Council, 2018)
Figure 10b Existing Caledonian building within the
streetscape and artwork of the proposed ILT hotel project.
Source: (McStay & Cawte, 2017)
There was a public notification of the application on 13th August 2018, and a thorough community engagement
hearing process was initiated. Accordingly, out of 18 submissions made to ICC, ten were in total support, one
gave conditional support, two were neutral, and five opposed the application.
The arguments of those in support of the ILT proposal were based on some positive impacts of the new hotel
project towards fostering the regeneration of Invercargill’s city centre, and the implications of city centre decline
from retaining the existing Caledonian building. The positive impacts of proposed ILT project include

19
(Invercargill City Council, 2018): (i) direct employment and economic benefits; (ii) positive redevelopment
impacts from project’s outcomes (i.e., through comprehensive architectural and urban design ideologies, enhanced
activation of pedestrian-friendly environments at street level, and provision of entertainment places to entice
visitors and residents to the city centre); and (iii) indirect benefits to remaining city centre heritage fabric through
potential economically viable adaptation of adjoining buildings. Moreover, the application supporters also argued
that although the Caledonian building has been assessed to be of moderate-high heritage significance, the negative
impacts of retaining the existing Caledonian heritage building would include several engineering and economic
challenges ranging from costly façade retention and unrealistic adaptive reuse, to costly seismic upgrade of the
entire building’s existing structural state of less than 20% NBS rating (Invercargill City Council, 2018).
The submitters who opposed the application argued that the negative impacts of the proposed ILT project would
create some direct negative impacts from demolition, through the loss of the Caledonian building’s heritage
significance, and the cumulative effects on other adjoining historical buildings in the city centre (Invercargill City
Council, 2018). However, the applicant offered some direct mitigation efforts to safeguard the entire loss of
heritage fabric, such as NZD 50,000 contribution to Invercargill’s heritage fund, the incorporation and reuse of
heritage components, and off-sets from minor futuristic impacts on heritage retention (Invercargill City Council,
2018).
Eventually, an evaluation of the significance of the potential positive and adverse effects from the demolition of
the Caledonian building and construction of the new ILT hotel as advised by the supporters and opponents of the
application, were weighed against the objectives and policies of ICC’s district plan and the Resource Management
Act 1991 (RMA, 1991). The application was approved after meeting the environmental outcomes of ICC’s district
plan by a considerable margin. The ILT hotel project was also justified to contribute significantly to the
advancements in the sustainable management of physical resources and land use in Invercargill’s city centre.
8. Discussion
This paper adopted the case study method (Yin, 2017) to describe the city centre regeneration (CCR) strategies
pursued by two provincial areas (Whanganui and Invercargill) in New Zealand, and examined their approach to
CCR.
Findings from the Invercargill case revealed a ‘demolition for redevelopment’ approach to CCR. The major
arguments that justified the support of this approach by Invercargill’s public include several engineering and
economic challenges (such as: (i) costly seismic upgrade of the entire building’s existing structural state to meet
the required seismic strengthening requirements; (ii) costly façade retention; and (iii) unfeasible adaptive reuse),
versus the higher prospects of spill-over benefits (West & Orr, 2003) from the new development. The implication
of the ‘demolition for redevelopment’ approach for Invercargill is that though it facilitated the depletion of a
significant number of Invercargill’s inner-city heritage building stock, it was considered the best strategy to CCR
in Invercargill due to their low attachment to place (Manzo & Perkins, 2006; Plunkett et al., 2018). While these
findings are in line with a similar study conducted by (Moore, 2016), other studies have highlighted the non-
feasibility of the ‘demolition for redevelopment’ approach for the regeneration of rural areas (Hao, Sliuzas, &
Geertman, 2011; Zhang, 2005; Zhang, 2008).
On the flip side, a ‘heritage preservation for regeneration’ approach to CCR was identified from the examined
Whanganui case study. This approach emerged as a result of the disapproval through public submissions to
demolish the Thains building. The arguments revolved around the community support towards saving heritage
buildings to sustain the city centre’s main streetscape. The submitters believed that using the low seismic rating
and expensive seismic upgrade of the building as an opportunity for demolition would create an irrevocable loss
of the region’s substantial heritage assets (Maio, Ferreira, & Vicente, 2018), and negatively impact the values of
historic heritage, which is contrary to Whanganui district council’s heritage policies and objectives provided in
the district plan. Accordingly, these findings align with other similar studies that have highlighted the benefits of
the ‘heritage preservation for regeneration’ approach (Ren*, 2008; Zhong & Chen, 2017).
Inconsistencies with the Resource Management Act 1991 (RMA, 1991) and the Thains building’s application not
being able to demonstrate an exploration of all feasible alternatives, leaving demolition as the last option, justifies
Whanganui’s stronger attachment to place (Manzo & Perkins, 2006; Plunkett et al., 2018) and the heritage
preservation attitude to city centre regeneration. Whanganui district council has been observed to be proactive in
providing support for building owners to preserve their heritage buildings. Some examples in Whanganui where

20
historical buildings and façades in the city centre were successfully preserved to regenerate the city centre include:
(i) 15A Victoria Avenue, where the building owner went through all the processes of seismically strengthening
and architecturally restoring the building because of the passion for built heritage (Heritage EQUIP, 2017); (ii)
refurbishment and seismic strengthening of council-owned projects (such as the opera house, art gallery, museum,
etc.,) implying WDC’s attitude of leading by example; (iii) the new buyers of the Thains building who bought the
historical building with the intention of preserving it; and (iv) the façade retention by owners of the cotton-on
building – 84 Victoria Avenue.
Differing levels of attachment to place were identified in both case studies, based on the strong arguments in the
submissions for building consent that supported the demolition and rebuild of historical buildings in Invercargill,
and preservation of historical buildings in Whanganui, towards CCR. Whereas a stronger attachment to place
(Manzo & Perkins, 2006; Plunkett et al., 2018) was exhibited in Whanganui, a weaker attachment to place was
observed in Invercargill.
Furthermore, as the BEPBAA mandates owners of seismic vulnerable heritage buildings to make hefty
investments to comply with the new safety requirements, there is an impediment to classify provincial city centres
as ‘Priority Areas’ according to the building act. The ‘Priority Areas’ requirement may have greatly contributed
to building owners within those areas to prefer not to engage with the council because they may not want to
financially commit to the compliance cost of retrofitting their buildings. Hence, the motivation for owners of
historical buildings in provincial city centres to invest in the seismic upgrade is usually low due to the poor
economics of the property market in these areas. Since the socio-economic activities that happen in provincial
city centres greatly influence the sustainability of the areas, investments in strengthening and preserving the city
centre historical buildings would make these areas lively and busy with retail, business and social activities.
Mayors of the Manawatu-Whanganui region (i.e., Whanganui, Rangitikei, Manawatu, Tararua District Councils)
have been very proactive in driving the change on how New Zealand’s provincial areas with lesser resources are
expected to effectively comply with the “one-size-fits-all” BEPBAA and still thrive, when compared to bigger
cities such as Auckland and Wellington. These Mayors long realised that the existing BEPBAA would threaten
the sustainability of provincial town centres in New Zealand if there is an absence of extensive regulatory and
non-regulatory incentives by the central government to promote compliance in smaller cities.
The central government have started to address the disproportionate influence of the BEPBAA on New Zealand’s
provincial areas with the following regulatory and financial incentives: (i) some adjustments have been made to
the funding pathway of Heritage EQUIP (Heritage EQUIP, 2019) which now supports provincial areas with funds
to pay for professional services for seismic assessments, including structural engineering and architectural plans;
(ii) In addition, owners of buildings in New Zealand who were previously required to seismically upgrade their
buildings after the building’s estimated value exceeds a substantial alteration threshold of 25%, would only do so
now if the value of the alteration is greater than $150,000 NZD or whichever is higher (Salesa, 2019); (iii) only
the façades, verandas and parapets of priority routes need to be strengthened within half the regular legislative
timeframe, while the seismic upgrade of remaining building can be done in full time; and (iv) section 133AT in
the Building Act now exempts access and fire requirements during building consent applications for seismic
upgrade.
9. Conclusions
This paper presented and described the city centre regeneration strategies of two case study areas – Whanganui
and Invercargill. Both case study areas are good examples of New Zealand’s provincial areas currently struggling
with city centre decline, partly due to the cost-benefit implications of owners’ willingness to invest in seismic
strengthening of their underutilised historical buildings. Findings from an exploratory case study research of the
examined provincial cities revealed two different approaches to city centre regeneration for the two examined
cities: (i) Invercargill – ‘demolition for redevelopment’; and (ii) Whanganui – ‘heritage preservation for
regeneration’. Also, while the BEPBAA has created logical arguments that have put earthquake-prone historical
buildings in the spotlight for demolition in an area, the same legislation has been used as a catalyst to provide
opportunities for the preservation and seismic upgrade of the earthquake-prone historical buildings in areas
another area.
The conditions of the historical building stock in the two city centres greatly influenced the attitudes of the public
in their submissions to either support or oppose the building consent applications for demolition. The poorly
maintained, deteriorating historical buildings in Invercargill’s city centre including the categories I and II listed

21
buildings in the HWCP inner-city redevelopment block project, and that on the ILT hotel site, were left to decay
for so long, that it got to a point where the deterioration of the walls and façades of these buildings became an
eyesore to the public. Such poor conditions of the city centre historical buildings contributed to the low value
attributed to heritage buildings held by Invercargill’s public. On the other hand, Whanganui District Council has
been more proactive in securing government funding for the maintenance and seismic strengthening of their
cultural amenities (e.g., the opera house, museum, art galleries), which has made the public value their inner-city
heritage buildings more. These findings imply that the actions (or inactions) of both councils shape the way their
communities perceive the value of the historical buildings in their city centres.
The energy that Whanganui’s Mainstreet organisation and earthquake-prone building task force put into
promoting the preservation of heritage following the enactment of the BEPBAA could also be considered as an
initiative that promoted a stronger attachment to place in Whanganui. It could, therefore, be asserted that it is the
BEPBAA that triggered conversations that have created strong community support for heritage preservation in
Whanganui. If the BEPBAA were not in place, the conversations about heritage preservation would still be
developing, and there would not have been much financial support from the government to strengthen and preserve
heritage buildings. Although the Invercargill public demonstrated a weaker attachment to place (Mihaylov &
Perkins, 2014) by, the local investors behind the HWCP inner-city redevelopment block project and ILT hotel
considered these redevelopment projects as very important towards stimulating the regeneration of Invercargill’s
city centre. These local investors went through the rigorous processes of buying the historical buildings from their
existing owners and getting approvals from council, sacrificing some of the buildings for demolition, and
preserving a few with significant heritage values (Forino, MacKee, & von Meding, 2016), when they could have
taken an easier and less costly approach by developing on green sites in the suburbs.
The decreasing retention and increasing demolitions trends of heritage buildings in New Zealand’s provincial city
centres as a result of the BEPBAA, have now triggered discussions that have contributed to the recent regulatory
and financial incentives initiated by the local and central government to address the unintended consequences of
the legislation on the vitality of provincial areas. Though these unintended consequences of the legislation may
have created opportunities for incentives, further research should explore if the allocated financial incentives for
the protection and conservation of heritage buildings in New Zealand’s provincial areas has influenced their
heritage building retention and demolitions counts. It would also be useful to explore a cost-benefit analysis for
both approaches to city centre regeneration, i.e., ‘demolition for development’ and ‘heritage preservation for
regeneration’ in further studies. The limitations of this study’s findings include its focus on historical buildings in
New Zealand’s provincial city centres, and, the use of fewer case studies. However, while further studies should
explore the use of more case studies, this study’s findings could apply to other countries with similar
characteristics to New Zealand in the context of this paper.
Acknowledgements
This study was (partially) supported by QuakeCoRE, a New Zealand Tertiary Education Commission-funded
Centre. This is QuakeCoRE publication number 0576.
References
Aigwi, I. E., Egbelakin, T., & Ingham, J. (2018). Efficacy of adaptive reuse for the redevelopment of underutilised
historical buildings: Towards the regeneration of New Zealand’s provincial town centres. International
journal of building pathology and adaptation, 36(4), 385-407.
Aigwi, I. E., Egbelakin, T., Ingham, J., Phipps, R., Rotimi, J., & Filippova, O. (2019). A performance-based
framework to prioritise underutilised historical buildings for adaptive reuse interventions in New
Zealand. Sustainable Cities and Society, 48, 101547. doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scs.2019.101547
Aigwi, I. E., Ingham, J., Phipps, R., & Filippova, O. (2020). Identifying parameters for a performance-based
framework: Towards prioritising underutilised historical buildings for adaptive reuse in New Zealand.
Cities, 102, 102756. doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cities.2020.102756
Aigwi, I. E., Phipps, R., Ingham, J., & Filippova, O. (2019). Urban transformation trajectories Of New Zealand’s
earliest cities undergoing decline: Identifying links to the newly enforced Building (Earthquake-Prone
Buildings) Amendment Act 2016. Paper presented at the 43RD AUBEA, Noosa, Australia.
Aigwi, I. E., Phipps, R., Ingham, J., & Filippova, O. (2020). Characterisation of Adaptive Reuse Stakeholders and
the Effectiveness of Collaborative Rationality Towards Building Resilient Urban Areas. Systemic Practice
and Action Research, 33(3), 1-11. doi:https://doi.org/10.1007/s11213-020-09521-0

22
Altman, I., & Low, S. M. (2012). Place attachment (Vol. 12): Springer Science & Business Media.
Balsas, C. J. L. (2000). City center revitalization in Portugal: Lessons from two medium size cities. Cities, 17(1),
19-31.
Balsas, C. J. L. (2004). City centre regeneration in the context of the 2001 European capital of culture in Porto,
Portugal. Local economy, 19(4), 396-410.
Balsas, C. J. L. (2007). City centre revitalization in Portugal: a study of Lisbon and Porto. Journal of Urban design,
12(2), 231-259.
Banerjee, A., Maurya, A. K., & Lämmel, G. (2018). A review of pedestrian flow characteristics and level of service
over different pedestrian facilities. Collective Dynamics, 3, 1-52.
Baxendine, S., Cochrane, B., Pool, I., & Poot, J. (2004). An Interpretation of New Zealand's Regional Employment
Change by Means of Classic Shift-Share Analysis 1986-2001. Labour, Employment and Work in New
Zealand.
Beaumont, C. E. (1994). How superstore sprawl can harm communities and what citizens can do about it:
National Trust for Historic Preservation.
Beauregard, R. A. (1986). Urban form and the redevelopment of central business districts. Journal of
Architectural and Planning Research, 183-198.
Beauregard, R. A. (2013). Voices of decline: The postwar fate of US cities: Routledge.
Birch, E. L. (2002). Having a longer view on downtown living. Journal of the American Planning Association, 68(1),
5-21.
Blight, F. C. (2013). Auckland Transport City Rail Link Notice of Requirement: Statement of Planning Evidence.
Retrieved from https://at.govt.nz/media/1168540/crlplanningeffectsevidenceoffionablight.pdf
Briffault, R. (1999). A Government for Our Time--Business Improvement Districts and Urban Governance.
Columbia Law Review, 99, 365-477.
Bromley, R. D., Tallon, A. R., & Thomas, C. J. (2005). City centre regeneration through residential development:
Contributing to sustainability. Urban Studies, 42(13), 2407-2429.
Brown, B., Perkins, D. D., & Brown, G. (2003). Place attachment in a revitalizing neighborhood: Individual and
block levels of analysis. Journal of environmental psychology, 23(3), 259-271.
Burayidi, M. (2013a). Downtowns: Revitalizing the centers of small urban communities. New York: Routledge.
Burayidi, M. (2013b). Resilient downtowns: a new approach to revitalizing small-and medium-city downtowns.
New York: Routledge.
Chang, T. C., & Huang, S. (2011). Reclaiming the city: Waterfront development in Singapore. Urban Studies,
48(10), 2085-2100.
Chukwudumogu, I. C., Levy, D., & Perkins, H. (2019). The influence of sentiments on property owners in post-
disaster rebuild: A case study of Christchurch, New Zealand. Property Management, 37(2), 243-261.
Coca-Stefaniak, J. A., Parker, C., Quin, S., Rinaldi, R., & Byrom, J. (2009). Town centre management models: A
European perspective. Cities, 26(2), 74-80.
Davies, M. S. (1997). Business Improvement Districts. Urban Law Annual; Journal of Urban and Contemporary
Law, 52(1), 187-223.
Davies, R., & Bennison, D. (1978). Retailing in the city centre: the characters of shopping streets. Tijdschrift voor
economische en sociale geografie, 69(5), 270-285.
Decker, F., & McCracken, S. (2018). Central banking in Australia and New Zealand: historical foundations and
modern legislative frameworks. Research Handbook on Central Banking, 245.
Department of the Environment. (1994). Vital and viable town centres: Meeting the challenge. United Kingdom:
Stationery Office Books.
Dowall, D. E. (1986). Planners and office overbuilding. Journal of the American Planning Association, 52(2), 131-
132.
Dubin, R. A. (1998). Maintenance decisions of absentee landlords under uncertainty. Journal of housing
economics, 7(2), 144-164.
Dunedin City Council. (2013). Warehouse precinct revitalisation plan. Retrieved from
https://www.dunedin.govt.nz/__data/assets/pdf_file/0006/291930/Warehouse-Plan-2013.pdf
Eaqub, S. (2014). Growing apart: regional prosperity in New Zealand (Vol. 18). New Zealand: Bridget Williams
Books.
Everton, A. R., & Hughes, D. J. (2017). Studies in public law and the retail sector. London: Routledge.
Faulk, D. (2006). The process and practice of downtown revitalization. Review of Policy Research, 23(2), 625-645.
Filippova, O., & Noy, I. (2019). Earthquake‐Strengthening Policy for Commercial Buildings in Small‐Town New
Zealand. Disasters. doi: https://doi.org/10.1111/disa.12360
Fogelson, R. M. (2003). Downtown: its rise and fall, 1880-1950: Yale University Press.

23
Forino, G., MacKee, J., & von Meding, J. (2016). A proposed assessment index for climate change-related risk for
cultural heritage protection in Newcastle (Australia). International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction,
19, 235-248.
Forsberg, H., Medway, D., & Warnaby, G. (1999). Town centre management by co-operation: evidence from
Sweden. Cities, 16(5), 315-322.
Francaviglia, R. V. (1996). Main street revisited: Time, space, and image building in small-town America:
University of Iowa Press.
Frieden, B. J., & Sagalyn, L. B. (1991). Downtown, inc: How America rebuilds cities: MIT press.
Gillette Jr, H. (1985). The evolution of the planned shopping center in suburb and city. Journal of the American
Planning Association, 51(4), 449-460.
Google Maps. (2019a). Invercargill project scope. Retrieved from
https://www.google.com/maps/place/Don+Street+%26+State+Highway+6,+Invercargill,+9810/@-
46.4118654,168.3484475,269m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m5!3m4!1s0xa9d2c49b967825df:0x98623e46a482
7ec0!8m2!3d-46.4108008!4d168.3474411
Google Maps. (2019b). Map of New Zealand showing Whanganui and Invercargill. Retrieved from
https://www.google.com/maps/search/map+of+nz+showing+whanganui+and+invercargill/@-
40.3674037,160.5022715,6z
Grimes, A., & Tarrant, N. (2013). A New Zealand Urban Population Database: Motu Working Paper No. 13-07
Retrieved from https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2309710
Hao, P., Sliuzas, R., & Geertman, S. (2011). The development and redevelopment of urban villages in Shenzhen.
Habitat International, 35(2), 214-224.
Hay, R. (1998). Sense of place in developmental context. Journal of environmental psychology, 18(1), 5-29.
Heath, T., Oc, T., & Tiesdell, S. (2013). Revitalising historic urban quarters: Routledge.
Helms, A. C. (2003). Understanding gentrification: an empirical analysis of the determinants of urban housing
renovation. Journal of Urban Economics, 54(3), 474-498.
Heritage EQUIP. (2017). AE Kitchen building, Whanganui. Retrieved from https://heritageequip.govt.nz/case-
studies/ae-kitchen-building-whanganui
Heritage EQUIP. (2019). Eligibility for Heritage EQUIP funding. Retrieved from https://heritageequip.govt.nz/
Heritage New Zealand. (2019a). Funding for Heritage Protection. Retrieved from
http://www.heritage.org.nz/protecting-heritage/funding-for-heritage-protection
Heritage New Zealand. (2019b). The List. Retrieved from http://www.heritage.org.nz/the-list
Hernandez, T., & Jones, K. (2008). The strategic evolution of the BID model in Canada. Business improvement
districts: Research, theories, and controversies, 401.
Hoyt, L. (2006). Importing ideas: The transnational transfer of urban revitalization policy. International Journal
of Public Administration, 29(1-3), 221-243.
Hummon, D. M. (1992). Community attachment. In Place attachment (pp. 253-278): Springer.
HWCP. (2019). Reimagined. Redeveloped. Revitalised. Retrieved from https://hwcp.nz/
Ides, C. (2002). Corporate strategy: the role of the centre. Handbook of strategy and management, 98.
Ingham, J., & Griffith, M. (2010). Performance of unreinforced masonry buildings during the 2010 Darfield
(Christchurch, NZ) earthquake. Australian Journal of Structural Engineering, 11(3), 207-224.
Invercargill City Council. (2018). ILT hotel application: Decision of Commissioner. Retrieved from
https://icc.govt.nz/ilt-hotel-application/
Invercargill City Council. (2019). HWCP inner city block development: Decision of Commissioners Retrieved from
https://icc.govt.nz/hwcp-inner-city-block-development/
Jacobs, K. (2004). Waterfront redevelopment: a critical discourse analysis of the policy-making process within
the Chatham maritime project. Urban Studies, 41(4), 817-832.
Langston, C., Wong, F. K., Hui, E. C., & Shen, L.-Y. (2008). Strategic assessment of building adaptive reuse
opportunities in Hong Kong. Building and Environment, 43(10), 1709-1718.
Lehrer, U., & Laidley, J. (2008). Old mega‐projects newly packaged? Waterfront redevelopment in Toronto.
International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, 32(4), 786-803.
Listokin, D. (2017). Landmarks Preservation and the Property Tax: Assessing Landmark Buildings for Real
Taxation Purposes: Routledge.
Lloyd, M., McCarthy, J., McGreal, S., & Berry, J. (2003). Business improvement districts, planning and urban
regeneration. International Planning Studies, 8(4), 295-321.
Lorch, B. J., & Smith, M. J. (1993). Pedestrian movement and the downtown enclosed shopping center. Journal
of the American Planning Association, 59(1), 75-86.

24
Maio, R., Ferreira, T. M., & Vicente, R. (2018). A critical discussion on the earthquake risk mitigation of urban
cultural heritage assets. International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction, 27, 239-247.
Manzo, L. C., & Perkins, D. D. (2006). Finding common ground: The importance of place attachment to
community participation and planning. Journal of planning literature, 20(4), 335-350.
Marshall, R. (2004). Waterfronts in post-industrial cities: Taylor & Francis.
Martinez-Fernandez, C., Audirac, I., Fol, S., & Cunningham-Sabot, E. (2012). Shrinking cities: Urban challenges of
globalization. International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, 36(2), 213-225.
Martinez-Fernandez, C., Weyman, T., Fol, S., Audirac, I., Cunningham-Sabot, E., Wiechmann, T., & Yahagi, H.
(2016). Shrinking cities in Australia, Japan, Europe and the USA: From a global process to local policy
responses. Progress in Planning, 105, 1-48.
MBIE. (2004). Building Act. Wellington, New Zealand: Ministry of Business Innovation & Employment Retrieved
from http://www.legislation.govt.nz/act/public/2004/0072/latest/DLM306036.html
MBIE. (2016). Building (Earthquake-prone Buildings) Amendment Act. Wellington: Ministry of Business
Innovation & Employment Retrieved from
http://www.legislation.govt.nz/act/public/2016/0022/22.0/DLM5616102.html
MBIE. (2017). Building Performance. Seismic hazard risk and deadline. Retrieved from
https://www.building.govt.nz/managing-buildings/managing-earthquake-prone-buildings/how-the-
system-works/
McBee, S. (1992). Downtown Development Handbook (Second ed.). Washington, DC: Urban Land Institute.
McDougall, G., & Marriott, A. (2019). Invercargill CBD Project Resource Consent Hearing: Seismic assessments.
Retrieved from https://icc.govt.nz/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/3-Graham-McDougall-and-Andrew-
Marriott-Sesmic-Assessments.pdf
McStay, A., & Cawte, H. (2017). One end of Langlands’ Block. Retrieved from New Zealand Heritage Properties
Ltd, Dunedin: https://icc.govt.nz/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/Appendix-05-Initial-Heritage-
Assessment-Heritage-Properties-Ltd.pdf
Medway, D., Warnaby, G., Bennison, D., & Alexander, A. (2000). Reasons for retailers’ involvement in town
centre management. International Journal of Retail & Distribution Management, 28(8), 368-378.
Mihaylov, N., & Perkins, D. D. (2014). Community place attachment and its role in social capital development. In
C. M. Lynne & D.-W. Patrick (Eds.), Place attachment: Advances in theory, methods and applications.
New York: Routledge.
Mitchell, J. (2001). Business improvement districts and the “new” revitalization of downtown. Economic
Development Quarterly, 15(2), 115-123.
Moe, R., & Wilkie, C. (1997). Changing places: Rebuilding community in the age of sprawl. New York: Henry Holt.
Moore, N. M. (2016). Valorizing urban heritage? Redevelopment in a changing city. In Heritage, Memory and the
Politics of Identity (pp. 107-120): Routledge.
Morçöl, G., Hoyt, L., Meek, J. W., & Zimmermann, U. (2017). Business improvement districts: Research, theories,
and controversies. Florida, USA: Routledge.
Morçöl, G., & Zimmermann, U. (2006). Metropolitan governance and business improvement districts. Intl Journal
of Public Administration, 29(1-3), 5-29.
Murphy, L. (2008). Third-wave gentrification in New Zealand: The case of Auckland. Urban Studies, 45(12), 2521-
2540.
O'Sullivan, A. (2012). Urban economics (8th ed.). London: McGraw-Hill Education.
Panuku Development Auckland. (2019). Regenerating Wynyard Quarter. Retrieved from
https://www.panuku.co.nz/projects/wynyard-quarter/chapter/regenerating-wynyard-quarter
Pelloi, S. (1983). Urban Design for Profit and Public Worth: The Eaton Centre Development. Plan Canada, 23(3),
91-101.
Perkins, D. D., & Long, D. A. (2002). Neighborhood sense of community and social capital. In Psychological sense
of community (pp. 291-318): Springer.
Pettifer, D. (1998). Measuring the performance of the corporate centre. Long Range Planning, 31(5), 783-785.
Plunkett, D., Phillips, R., & Ucar Kocaoglu, B. (2018). Place Attachment and Community Development. Journal of
Community Practice, 26(4), 471-482.
Pool, I. (2013). Te Iwi Maori: Population past, present and projected. Auckland: Auckland University Press.
Porter, M. E. (1995). The competitive advantage of the inner city. Harvard business review, 73(3), 55-71.
Potter, S. H., Becker, J. S., Johnston, D. M., & Rossiter, K. P. (2015). An overview of the impacts of the 2010-2011
Canterbury earthquakes. International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction, 14, 6-14.

25
Pretty, G. H., Chipuer, H. M., & Bramston, P. (2003). Sense of place amongst adolescents and adults in two rural
Australian towns: The discriminating features of place attachment, sense of community and place
dependence in relation to place identity. Journal of environmental psychology, 23(3), 273-287.
Reckien, D., & Martinez-Fernandez, C. (2011). Why do cities shrink? European Planning Studies, 19(8), 1375-
1397.
Ren*, X. (2008). Forward to the past: historical preservation in globalizing Shanghai. City & Community, 7(1), 23-
43.
Rifkind, C. (1977). Main Street: the face of urban America: Harper & Row New York.
RMA. (1991). Resource Management Act. Retrieved from
http://www.legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1991/0069/232.0/DLM230265.html
RNZ. (2019). Whanganui heritage building saved from demolition. Retrieved from
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/364224/whanganui-heritage-building-saved-from-demolition
Roberts, P., Sykes, H., & Granger, R. (2016). Urban regeneration. London: Sage.
Robertson, K. A. (1993). Pedestrianization strategies for downtown planners: Skywalks versus pedestrian malls.
Journal of the American Planning Association, 59(3), 361-370.
Robertson, K. A. (1995). Downtown redevelopment strategies in the United States: An end-of-the-century
assessment. Journal of the American Planning Association, 61(4), 429-437.
Robertson, K. A. (2004). The main street approach to downtown development: An examination of the four-point
program. Journal of Architectural and Planning Research, 55-73.
Rosentraub, M. S., Swindell, D., Przybylski, M., & Mullins, D. R. (1994). Sport and Downtown Development
Strategy If You Build It, Will Jobs Come? Journal of Urban Affairs, 16(3), 221-239.
Rubenstein, H. M. (1992). Pedestrian malls, streetscapes, and urban spaces: John Wiley & Sons.
Sairinen, R., & Kumpulainen, S. (2006). Assessing social impacts in urban waterfront regeneration. Environmental
impact assessment review, 26(1), 120-135.
Salesa, J. (2019). Easing the impact of earthquake strengthening for provincial New Zealand. Retrieved from
https://www.beehive.govt.nz/release/easing-impact-earthquake-strengthening-provincial-new-
zealand
Sawicki, D. S. (1989). The festival marketplace as public policy: Guidelines for future policy decisions. Journal of
the American Planning Association, 55(3), 347-361.
Skelcher, B. (1992). What are the lessons learned from the Main Street Pilot Project, 1977-1980? Small town
(USA).
Southland Regional Development Strategy. (2016). Action Plan: 2015-2025. Retrieved from
http://www.sords.co.nz/site/assets/files/1/sords_action_plan.pdf
Statistics New Zealand. (2017). Statistical standard for geographic areas 2018. Retrieved from
http://archive.stats.govt.nz/methods/classifications-and-standards/classification-related-stats-
standards/geographic-areas.aspx#
Statistics New Zealand. (2018a). Business Demography Statistics. Geographic units by industry and statistical
area 2000-18. Retrieved from
http://nzdotstat.stats.govt.nz/wbos/Index.aspx?_ga=2.133971660.317407011.1547470004-
133109085.1543372741#
Statistics New Zealand. (2018b). Population estimates tables. Subnational population estimates (urban rural), by
age and sex, at 30 June 1996, 2001, 2006-18 (2018 boundaries). Retrieved from
http://nzdotstat.stats.govt.nz/wbos/Index.aspx?_ga=2.133971660.317407011.1547470004-
133109085.1543372741#
Talen, E., & Jeong, H. (2019). Does the classic American main street still exist? An exploratory look. Journal of
Urban design, 24(1), 78-98.
Taylor, R. B. (1996). Neighborhood responses to disorder and local attachments: The systemic model of
attachment, social disorganization, and neighborhood use value. Sociological Forum, 11(1), 41-74.
Theodori, G. L. (2001). Examining the effects of community satisfaction and attachment on individual well‐being.
Rural sociology, 66(4), 618-628.
Thorns, D., & Schrader, B. (2010). 'City history and people', Te Ara - the Encyclopedia of New Zealand. Retrieved
from https://teara.govt.nz/en/city-history-and-people
Travers, T., & Weimar, J. (1996). Business improvement districts: New York and London. London School of
Economics and Political Science, London, UK.
Ushchev, P., Sloev, I., & Thisse, J.-F. (2015). Do we go shopping downtown or in the ‘burbs? Journal of Urban
Economics, 85, 1-15.

26
Visser, G., & Kotze, N. (2008). The state and new-build gentrification in central Cape Town, South Africa. Urban
Studies, 45(12), 2565-2593.
Vitek, W., & Jackson, W. (1996). Rooted in the land: Essays on community and place: Yale University Press.
Wang, J. (2019). Automobiles: A Unique Perspective on China’s Social Development. In Development of a Society
on Wheels (pp. 1-14): Springer.
Ward, K. (2007). Business improvement districts: policy origins, mobile policies and urban liveability. Geography
Compass, 1(3), 657-672.
Warnaby, G., Bennison, D., & Davies, B. J. (2005). Marketing town centres: retailing and town centre
management. Local Economy, 20(2), 183-204.
West, D. M., & Orr, M. (2003). Downtown malls as engines of economic development, community spirit, and
political capital. Economic Development Quarterly, 17(2), 193-204.
Whanganui Chronicle. (2019a). Heritage Grant Fund work is underway on buildings in Whanganui. Whanganui
Chronicle. Retrieved from https://www.nzherald.co.nz/wanganui-
chronicle/news/article.cfm?c_id=1503426&objectid=12221050
Whanganui Chronicle. (2019b). Resource consent application to demolish Whanganui's Thain's Building to be
considered on August 9-10. Retrieved from https://www.nzherald.co.nz/resource-management-
act/news/article.cfm?c_id=303&objectid=12103442
Whanganui Chronicle. (2019c). Whanganui's heritage Thain's building can't be saved after devastating fire;
council orders demolition. Whanganui Chronicle. Retrieved from https://www.nzherald.co.nz/north-
island/news/article.cfm?c_id=1503932&objectid=12252436
Whanganui District Council. (2016). Making Whanganui Visible: Regeneration strategy for the Whanganui town
centre. Auckland: Urbanismplus Ltd Retrieved from http://www.whanganui.govt.nz/our-district/major-
projects/town-centre/Documents/DraftReportNov2016.pdf
Whanganui District Council. (2019a). Public notice of application concerning resource consent application to
demolish the Class B Heritage building at 1 Victoria Avenue, Whanganui. Retrieved from
https://www.whanganui.govt.nz/Public-Notices/Regarding-resource-consent-1-Victoria-
Avenue?BestBetMatch=1%20victoria%20avenue|a660ea40-8921-4012-bf28-
7734c79d2e06|62bd3e67-e49c-4c5d-aff9-a6435e8baa32|en-AU
Whanganui District Council. (2019b). Resource consent granted for demolition of fire-damaged building.
Retrieved from https://www.whanganui.govt.nz/Your-Council/News-Events/News/Resource-consent-
granted-for-demolition-of-fire-damaged-
building?BestBetMatch=resource%20consent%20to%20demolish|a660ea40-8921-4012-bf28-
7734c79d2e06|62bd3e67-e49c-4c5d-aff9-a6435e8baa32|en-AU
Whanganui District Council. (2019c). Whanganui Walls to bring colour to town. Retrieved from
https://www.whanganui.govt.nz/our-council/news-media/media-
releases/Pages/default.aspx?newsItem=9019
Whyatt, G. (2004). Town centre management: how theory informs a strategic approach. International Journal of
Retail & Distribution Management, 32(7), 346-353.
Wilson, J. (2005). 'History', Te Ara - the Encyclopedia of New Zealand. Retrieved from
https://teara.govt.nz/en/history
Wolf, J. F. (2006). Urban governance and business improvement districts: the Washington, DC BIDs. Intl Journal
of Public Administration, 29(1-3), 53-75.
Wood, J. (2019). Growing beyond growth: Rethinking the goals of regional development in New Zealand.
Retrieved from https://maxim.org.nz/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/Paper-Growing-Beyond-
Growth.pdf
Woods, N., Cropper, D., & Cawte, H. (2019). Invercargill Central Redevelopment. Retrieved from New Zealand
Heritage Properties Ltd, Dunedin: https://icc.govt.nz/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/3.2-Invercargill-
Central-HIA-Addendum-January-2019.pdf
Yakubu, I. E., Egbelakin, T., Dizhur, D., Ingham, J., Sungho Park, K., & Phipps, R. (2017). Why are older inner-city
buildings vacant? Implications for town centre regeneration. Journal of Urban Regeneration & Renewal,
11(1), 44-59.
Yin, R. K. (2017). Case study research and applications: Design and methods: Sage publications.
Zhang, L. (2005). Migrant enclaves and impacts of redevelopment policy in Chinese cities. Restructuring the
Chinese city: Changing society, economy and space, 218-233.
Zhang, Y. (2008). Steering towards growth: Symbolic urban preservation in Beijing, 1990–2005. Town Planning
Review, 79(2-3), 187-208.

27
Zhong, X., & Chen, X. (2017). Demolition, rehabilitation, and conservation: heritage in Shanghai’s urban
regeneration, 1990–2015. Journal of Architecture and Urbanism, 41(2), 82-91.