Plans are underway for the construction of a masterplan residential and commercial development at Raiwaqa in Suva by the Public Rental Board.
The PRB intends to put in a multi-storey development at the sites of its old sewerage and 4-storey residential block, which was demolished in 2008 due to structural deficiencies in the buildings.
“The Raiwaqa sites both cover a crown land area of approximately 10 acres and is located within the Central Business District of Suva City,” the PRB noted.
It has advertised for EOIs from planners, designers and consultants to carry out its masterplan.
Its former multi-storey buildings had 344 one-room and two-bedroom flats, with tenants advised to vacate in 2003, when the PRB’s Board of Directors commissioned engineering firm, Sinclair Knight Merze, which confirmed an earlier report that noted the buildings’ structures were vulnerable to seismic loading on the longitudinal direction.
In 2004, the PRB Board commissioned another engineering firm, Houng Lee Kaba Jacobs, to upgrade the structures, which would have cost an estimated $3 million. That same year, the Board reaffirmed that tenants needed to vacate the flats and have the structure demolished.
Rental revenue of around $0.25 million annually was lost, with several incentives -including cash handouts, undertaken by the PRB to convince tenants to vacate.