There’s nothing like a fence going up and diggers moving in to get the community gossip mill running. With the derelict houses at 10-12 Elizabeth and 11-15 Home Streets coming down, speculation has been rife as to what might replace them. Another apartment block? An extension to the Brendan Foot service centre?

Principal Dealer for Brendan Foot, Matthew Foot, told The Local that the main reason for taking the houses down was health and safety.

“We’ve owned that piece of land for around six years now, and some of the houses were pretty far gone even then. We’ve been having issues with squatters and people breaking into them to steal copper and iron fittings. We were worried about the safety of the neighbours, so made the call to take them down.”

The two habitable houses on the site will remain, and have tenants living in them.

Foot said they do not have any plans at this stage for the future of the site. “We’ve been approached by developers over the years – including someone who wanted to build a private hospital on the site, but the cost of construction right now is too high for us to be able to do anything with it.”

As to the longer term prospects for Brendan Foot in Mt Victoria, Matthew was less sure. “We love being in Mt Victoria – it’s a great community. My sister lives around the corner, and my nephew goes to the school there. Our customers love that they can drop their car off and then walk into town.

For the time being the site will act as overflow parking for the service centre, and for the new Jaecoo/ Omeda showroom that will open in March on the corner of Elizabeth Street and Kent Terrace.

“We are excited to welcome these two Chinese brands to our line up,” Matthew told us. “The opportunity came up to take a short-term lease on the site, so we have taken advantage of that.”

The site will be part of a national introduction of the two brands to New Zealand, rolling out across the country this year.