Spring opening for Christchurch's 'unique' $80m Riverside Market

Thursday, 15 August 2019

Riverside Market developer Mike Percasky and general manager Mike Fisher explain the ideas behind the development.

An $80 million development bringing together dozens of businesses in Christchurch's central city will open next month.

Riverside Market will soon be packed with more than 70 different businesses selling fresh produce, including fish, cheese, bread, fruit and veges, meat, flowers and eggs and ready-to-eat food from various international cuisines. There will be a kombucha bar, a micro brewery, at least three new restaurants, a cooking school, a tattoo parlour and niche clothing retailers.

Work at the site, which borders Cashel Mall, Oxford Tce and Lichfield St, started 18 months ago and is nearing an end with tenants starting their fit outs a month ago.

Ironbark timber framing from Lyttelton wharf and recycled rimu ceilings feature inside the $80m Riverside Market.

The market, which is being developed by Richard Peebles, Mike Percasky and Kris Ingles – the men behind High St Lanes and Little High Eatery – will open to the public on September 17.

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Laneways within the Riverside Market development will link to other parts of Cashel Mall.

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These bulls will feature at one of three restaurants inside Riverside Market.

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Riverside Market developer Mike Percasky, left, and general manager Mike Fisher.

A mezzanine floor features at the top of the Riverside Market, giving diners a birds eye view.

* Argentinian-style slow cooked meat to make Riverside Market home**

Percasky said the trio wanted to create a unique experience that people could not get at the suburban malls or anywhere else in the city.

'We are planning for it to be a magnet for people to come into the CBD.'

The developers have recycled and reused several products to build the market. Ironbark timber from Lyttelton wharf features inside the market hall, 80 per cent of the bricks have come from the Duncan Buildings in High St and there is recycled rimu throughout. Windows inside the main market hall came from a cafe in Lyttelton that was demolished following the 2011 earthquakes.

Two clocks from the former railway station building on Moorhouse Ave will also feature at the site. They have been refurbished with new mechanisms from Europe.

There will be an area for buskers to perform and seating on two upper levels for 350 people to enjoy their meals and have a drink.

An area has also been set aside for the Riverside Collective, which is made up of a number of small traders who share the site.

Riverside general manager Mike Fisher said he hoped the development would get people excited about coming back into the central city. There was also about 20,000 people working in offices within a five minute walk of Riverside, he said.