Williams Building site to become interim car park

Diggers have begun clearing the demolition rubble at the Hastings St site which will become a temporary car park. Photo / Duncan Brown

The site of what had been the Williams Building in Hastings St, Napier, is undergoing a clean-up - although at this stage, the occupants it is being cleaned up for will have four wheels.

"It is going to be a car park, although that is an interim solution," Mike Walker from Wallace Developments said.

Contractors moved on to the site last Monday and began clearing rubble left from the demolition of the 103-year-old building last year.

The surface will be flattened and covered with a metal surface as part of a parking "solution" for employees who will be working out of Cosmopolitan House across from the site.

Mr Williams said ASB were set to move into the second floor of the building in April and the site would provide leased parking for the company.

In the long term, the site is set to become a block of three retail or office centres, and the car parking plan will remain - in the form of a ramped access from Albion Lane on to the second level above the shops which will take about 20 vehicles.

The resource consent process to build the new block had gone through and Mr Williams said the work would begin when tenants had been confirmed.

Until then, the site would operate as a leased parking area.

"So it's a good working solution for the site in the meantime."