Housing plan for maltworks site

NICK TOLERTON | 8th June 2010

HEATHCOTE'S most conspicuous landmark, the old maltworks silos, could be set for demolition.

Owner Roc Mac is believed to want to clear the 4.1ha site and redevelop it with at least 55 sections if it can change its industrial zoning.

Roc Mac denies it plans to demolish the silos and other buildings at present.

''We are just sitting on it till everything falls into place economically,'' said spokesman
Dean McCashin.

The site lent itself to several options, he said.

However, local residents say they have been shown the proposal to clear the site and put in homes, subject to getting a change of zoning from the city council. It would then be subdivided into 55 to 60 450sq m sections, landscaped to match the adjoining domain.

''If it's done as they suggest, it would be a considerable advance on what's there now,''
said Heathcote Valley Community Association chairman Ian McLeod.

The community as a whole would be pleased to see it tidied up, but there would be considerable expense in removing the concrete silos, he said.

They were built in a continuous single pour, taking six to seven days, about 1970.

''It's very, very solid concrete,'' he said.

The site was used for maltworks for about 130 years, in its latter era by brewing giants Lion Nathan and DB through their joint venture Canterbury Malting Co.

It's had a chequered history since closing in 1999.

Roc Mac, owned by the McCashin family of Mac's Brewery, bought it in 2005 and initially planned to capitalise on the New Zealand film industry boom by developing studios
there. Last year it unsuccessfully put the property up for sale, hoping to get more
than $5m for it.