Hands up anyone with a good suggestion for the old Kaipara Co-op Dairy Factory building, now up for sale.

It's a prime spot, right smack bang on the town's Southern entrance (although admittedly right on the rail line and much of it down in a bit of a hole).

Just let me just get my tongue firmly in my cheek ... maybe it could be the site for the new World Cup stadium - after all, it is right on the rail line, which seems to be a major consideration for the Government (despite the fact no-one seems to use the trains...) It's even waterfront, if not in quite such a glamorous way as downtown Auckland ;-)

It would be a shame to see the building re-used as a factory, considering it's location.

My wife is all for knocking it down and creating a park on the site - quite a nice idea, I thought, though I can just see the council falling over itself to fork out money for something like that!

Most of the building is pretty much just an ugly old eyesore, although the main entrance part is sort of art deco-ish, with its curved walls and glass blocks. Perhaps that bit could be retained and used as the basis for something a bit more attractive.

There was talk a few years back of creating an arts centre in the building, and I still think that's a good idea considering the wealth of artistic talent in the area (see my previous post). Those sorts of things often work quite well, with artists practising their crafts in a rabbit-warren sort of old building.

Whether there's enough of a market to keep something like that running full time in Helensville is a bit doubtful though; it would probably work well as a weekend-only affair, but the setup costs probably make that financially unviable.

So, what else? Come on locals - put your thinking caps on, and get your wallets out!