The Star: March 08, 2018

14 Thursday March 8 2018
Latest Christchurch news at www.star.kiwi
ews
Lanterns to light up central city
HUNDREDS OF spectacular
Chinese lanterns have been
brought out of storage for this
year’s Christchurch Lantern
Festival.
The popular festival will be
held on Saturday and Sunday
from 6-10pm, and is back in the
central city for the first time in
seven years.
The lanterns will light up the
Ōtākaro Avon River Precinct
with world-class entertainment,
delicious food and traditional
crafts all on-site.
The festival’s technical event
manager Abe Fisher said three
types of lanterns are being installed
– tree, water and groundbased.
A lot of time goes into planning
exactly where each of the
hundreds of lanterns will be
placed, as well as making sure
they are well secured and safe.
“The area is new, and thoughtful
consideration goes into every
placement. Having the lanterns
on and wrapping around the
river in the city will be fantastic,”
• By Bridget Rutherford
COLOUR: A water-based dragon is part of the Christchurch
Lantern Festival.
PHOTO: MARTIN HUNTER
Mr Fisher said.
There will be several new lanterns,
including one which has
been especially commissioned
this year – which according to
the Chinese zodiac is the year of
the dog.
The Christchurch Pops Choir,
PLANS TO develop a hotel,
apartments, commercial and
retail space are in the pipeline for
the former Addington Saleyards
site.
Fanyun Chiu, who owns the
Deans Ave site through Hagley
South Living Ltd, has applied
for resource consent to build 128
residential units, two retail and
two commercial spaces, a hotel
and landscaping.
Plans show the hotel would
have 100 rooms, a restaurant,
meeting and conference facilities,
function space and a gym for
guests.
The city council is processing
the application. If it gets the
go-ahead, the owners hope to
do detailed design work within
the next two years, followed by
construction.
The former Addington Saleyards,
which had been derelict
for decades, were demolished in
2014.
The Chiu family bought the
site in 1997. They had planned
on building a commercial development,
but were not allowed
because it was zoned residential.
More recently, there were
plans to build a car yard complex
on the site, but it was not well
received and plans did not eventuate.
which will be performing at
the festival for the first time,
will sing the popular Chinese
folk song The Jasmine Flower in
Mandarin as part of the musical
line-up.
Other entertainment at the
festival includes Chinese shadow
Part of the site is now used
by the Canterbury District
Health Board for its temporary
Christchurch Hospital park and
ride service.
The resource consent application
for the development said it
would be split into five areas.
The hotel and a block with
three bedroom apartments
would front onto Deans Ave.
Two larger blocks with a
mixture of one, two, three and
Festival business forum
TWO international China
experts will speak at the South
Island Lantern Business Forum
tomorrow as part of the lantern
celebrations.
The forum, which is in its
second year running, will
be held at the Transitional
Cathedral from 7.30-9.30am,
followed by workshops later in
the morning.
It’s aimed at all business and
organisational leaders who
work with or intend to work
with China – particularly those
from the export, tourism and
international education sectors.
This year’s international
keynote speaker is Economist
Intelligence Unit regional
puppetry, acrobats, traditional
Chinese dance and music, martial
arts demonstrations, and
traditional Chinese crafts such
as sugar-painting and dough
figurine making.
DERELICT: An
application has
been lodged
to build 128
residential units
and a 100-room
hotel at the
former Addington
Saleyards site.
PHOTO: MARTIN
HUNTER
four bedroom apartments would
be behind the hotel, with a small
block of one and two bedroom
apartments at the back.
There would be associated car
parking.
A spokeswoman for the Chiu
family said time had been taken
to consider how to best respond
to the site’s past, attractive setting
near Hagley Park and the neighbourhood.
She said it would provide a mix
The Star
director for Asia and
Australasia, Duncan Innes-Ker.
Mr Innes-Ker, who is based
in Hong Kong, will talk about
which key policies and customer
trends in China shape how
businesses interact and engage
with the Chinese market.
He is also a frequent
commentator for news services,
such as the BBC and Cable News
Network.
Royole Corporation founder
and chief executive Bill Liu will
also be speaking.
His Silicon Valley, Hong Kong
and Shenzhen-based company
develops rollable displays for
smartphones, mobile devices,
computers and televisions.
Major road works are
happening in the central city
currently, so festival-goers are
encouraged to plan ahead and
allow extra time to get to and
from the event.
Housing, hotel planned for saleyards site
of housing types for a range of
budgets.
“The concept also seeks to
capitalise on the site’s location to
develop a quality hotel, providing
much needed visitor accommodation
in a high amenity area
close to the hospital, the oval and
the surrounding area.”
Context Architects had done
the designs alongside the owners
and Harrison Grierson, she said.
They had been in discussion
about it with city council planners
for some time.
“Providing the resource
consent process is successful,
the owners intend to commence
detailed design work within the
next two years with construction
to follow.”
The application includes creating
a new road, which would run
between the old Blenheim Rd
and Mayfair St.