A large number of Christchurch bars and eateries are for sale as a still-broken city struggles to fill the growing number of venues in the post-quake city. Liz McDonald asks if the party is over.

"It's not like it used to be – you'd just open the doors and have a big party. Those days are well gone.

"It appears glamorous, but it's a lot harder to make a dollar. Now, it's really difficult. "

This is bar and restaurant owner Max Bremner's assessment of how his industry has changed, just in the last few years.

Tough times are forcing some central Christchurch hospitality operators from the industry, with some giving away businesses just to get out.

A large number of bars and eateries are for sale, some at less than the value of the chattels. In other cases, asking prices are less than half what current owners paid.

Long-established bar and restaurant owner Max Bremner urged Christchurch to do more to attract visitors. 

Central Christchurch is about to get another boost with the biggest shift yet of public servants back to the central city.

On Monday, nearly 500 workers will begin moving into the new $85 million Grand Central building on Cashel St just east of High St.

The site is the largest of four new buildings privately built for 1500 public servants in a Crown project aimed at pumping extra pay packets into the retail precinct. 

From high up, the broad view over central Christchurch is largely one of progress, with cranes on the skyline, scaffolding, building gangs, road works and the ubiquitous road cones.

Zoom in closer, however, and you can see the pockets of frantic activity and construction are interrupted by unkempt sites or fenced-off buildings. Some are strewn with rubbish and pockets of weeds while others have been snapped up for vehicle parking by Wilson Parking as a money-making opportunity.

There is still an air of desolation about parts of the city. On a hot, nor'west day, visitors could be forgiven for expecting to see tumbleweed rolling down some central Christchurch streets.

Christchurch businesspeople have renewed calls to make landowners tidy wasteland sites to keep the city recovering.

With new buildings opening and others well under construction, the glaring contrast with vacant or derelict properties is stirring new levels of frustration.

Hamish Doig, managing director of Colliers International, said the council must incentivise land owners to improve vacant sites.

Property investor and developer Philip Carter has snapped up a key site in central Christchurch's new retail precinct.

The property is the corner piece of the damaged former Pagoda Court building at the corner of Colombo and Cashel streets, opposite Ballantynes.

It has sat vacant and boarded up since the earthquakes and was gutted earlier this year by its previous owner, a local family trust headed by Kenneth Yee.

The property sold for $3.6 million at auction this week after Carter outbid four other would-be buyers.