Uprooted from the CBD

The former Queenstown Arts Centre building, a Stanley St landmark for about 100 years, finally has a new home.

At 4am on two days last week, the wooden building was shifted in two sections by Dunedin’s McNeilly Heavy Haulage to Frankton’s Country Lane retailvillage, where it was plonked down on piles.

Originally part of Queenstown’s first high school, the building had been operated as an arts centre by the Queenstown Arts Society for 20-plus years before council terminated its lease two years ago.

Country Lane’s owners then successfully tendered for it to be an arts hub at its precinct opposite the Events Centre.