However, while it was a bit of a sad occasion, one of the Alexandra building's owners says it was a strategic decision.
The cost of strengthening the building was about the same as rebuilding, around $400,000, but the new building was opted for in the hope it would attract shoppers, and encourage other building owners to do the same.
''Hopefully, this will encourage other landlords in town to get assessments ... and bring buildings up to earthquake standards and beautify their buildings which will encourage people to come to town and go shopping,'' Pat Houlahan, of Alexandra, said.
He found out from the Central Otago District Council about nine months ago that the building was earthquake prone and a subsequent engineer's assessment showed it was below the 33% threshold of the building code, meaning it would need to be strengthened.
Breen Construction managing director Lindsay Breen, who is overseeing the process, said the building was assessed at 18% of the code and the approximate $400,000 price tag would get it only to 67%.
Floor Pride has been in the building for about 16 years and store manager Trevor Mills said it was ''the end of an era'' for him.
He has not only been the tenant for about 16 years, but he could remember growing up in Alexandra and visiting the old shops. He said in the past it had been a chemist and a bookshop and at one point had a second-hand shop upstairs.
He has already started moving his business to the old Sundance Spas premises, in the Centrepoint Car Park. The move will be completed by Saturday and on Monday the demolition process will begin.
Mr Breen said four men would be working to bring the building down by hand, as there was no room for a digger. It was expected to take about three weeks. The neighbouring business would not be affected, except possibly by noise, but some work was planned for weekends, to mitigate that.
Mr Houlahan hoped the new building would be finished by the beginning of September.
A hairdresser was interested in renting the upstairs space. He and business partner Warren Whitelock, of Wanaka, were still looking for a tenant for downstairs.
Council planning and environment manager Louise van der Voort said resource consent was not needed to demolish the building as it was not listed in the district plan. Building consent was needed, though, and had been granted.
Tarbert St will not be closed while the building is pulled down but a ''works methodology'' was in place to ensure no members of the public would be affected.
She said it was the first building in Central Otago that was being demolished because of its earthquake-prone status.
Under the council's earthquake-prone building policy, a building owner is only obliged to get an engineer's assessment, upgrade or strengthen their building if they want to carry out any activity which would require a building consent, such as alterations.
Under a proposed national policy, local authorities would be required to get seismic capacity assessments on all non-residential and multiunit, multistoreyed residential buildings within five years of the policy taking effect.
Building owners would then have a year to submit strengthening or demolition plans and 10 years to carry them out.
