Demolition and reconstruction in the heart of Hamilton is continuing at apace. These two pictures show activity at the the site of the Old Colony Club in Trott Road and next to Washington Mall in Church Street.

The Old Colony Club is in the middle of on-going construction to create an expanded headquarters for Argus Group, which is adding to its offices in nearby Wesley Street, which back onto the Old Colony club site.

A seven-storey-tall extension to the Argus offices is taking shape to the south of the Old Colony Club. The additional extension is 122 feet long and 25 feet wide. In total an extra 96,402 square feet of office space will be created by the new construction, of which 21,000 square feet has been created by adding in the additional extension made possible by the purchase of land from the Old Colony Club.

The building will stand 126 feet tall and includes a fourth-floor bridge over a public right of way. Earthmoving equipment has now started clearing ground to the north of the main Old Colony Club building.

Not far away on Church Street a car park and three buildings between the Washington Mall and the Mechanics Building are out-of-bounds as demolition takes place in preparation for the much anticipated Washington Mall phase three.

The three buildings that are being replaced, including the old Cable & Wireless building, are owned by Washington Properties. The original plans for the extension to the shopping mall showed an additional 125,000 sq ft of rentable space being created, made up of two floors of shops and four floors of offices.