Why some iconic buildings in Wellington are abandoned

Monday, 17 February 2025

Despite its location on the prominent corner of Courtenay Place and Taranaki Street, the old home of Molly Malones is yet to find a new occupant.

Molly Malones has sat empty on the gateway to Wellington’s entertainment precinct for a decade. The pub served its last beer in January 2015, before the owner put his two hospo companies into liquidation.

The empty premises of the old Clarendon Hotel, built in 1907, is one of the most visible examples of how building laws intended to save lives helped transform icons into eyesores.

The Molly Malones building in the corner of Courtney Place is earthquake prone. Under building laws, its owners had until November next year to strengthen it – until the Government granted a four-year extension to affected properties as part of an attempt to improve the law.

The building owner, Cornerstone Partners, also has a number of venues including the Foxglove and St Johns bars and office blocks around the capital.

A year after the pub closed, the Molly Malones building was damaged in the Kaikōura quakes.

Cornerstone has plans for the Molly’s site, but won’t reveal them publicly. But Stuff can reveal the company purchased two neighbouring and quake-prone properties on Courtenay Place – the former home of Electric Avenue and current premises of Enigma Cafe – in 2022.

The fate of Molly’s has long been uncertain. The three-storey property was significantly damaged in the 2016 Kaikōura quakes. Initially, the company moved to demolish the site, then in late 2022 searched in vain for someone to buy or lease the property.

Cornerstone Partner’s Corey McMeeking said finding an occupant was the missing piece of the puzzle. “If I had a tenant who would pay the rent, then you’re going to do the job. It’s a no-brainer.”

The site would be developed before the 2030 deadline, McMeeking told Stuff.

Around the corner from Molly’s, the Amora Hotel has also sat unused for nearly eight years.

Real estate agent Jim Wana, tasked with finding a buyer or lessee several years ago, said recent events – including the pandemic and subsequent retail and hospitality downturn – had knocked the confidence of tenants. “It’s not just Wellington. You can go to any city in New Zealand… There are any number of shops vacant.”

Wana welcomed the Government review into earthquake-prone building laws. “Something needs to happen.”

Take the NBS rating, which compares an existing building’s seismic performance against the new building standard.

The Government requires all buildings with a rating under 34% to be strengthened. Buildings less than 67% NBS don’t have to be remediated, but are still deemed “earthquake risks”. Accordingly, the market has set a de-facto standard, Wana said.

“Government and corporations won’t look at a building unless it’s a minimum – a minimum – of 70%,” he said. “To a degree, it’s all got out of hand.”

The Adelaide Hotel, constructed from brick and masonry, has sat unoccupied since it was closed by legislative order nearly 15 years ago.

Amid criticism that structural engineers produce inconsistent and highly conservative results, the rating system could be replaced in the overhaul.

Currently, a group of experts – the Seismic Review Steering Group – is assessing the system and will make recommendations to the Government later this year. The Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment will then develop the proposed changes and consult the public, and a new bill could be introduced next year.

The Government may also give building owners a second extension, adding another two years to remediation deadlines.

Seismic force

Dennis Parbhu plans to retain the Adelaide Hotel’s historic facade, but construct six modern floors on top of the original building.

But there was no relief for the Adelaide Hotel, which had its strengthening deadline expire in 2013. The building, constructed in 1899, has been empty since it received a “red sticker” from the council in 2011, deeming it unsuitable to be occupied.

The Victorian-era property is also on the council’s heritage list, meaning the option to demolish it – typically, one way to comply with seismic laws – is essentially off the table.

Businessman Dennis Parbhu purchased the property, on Adelaide Road in Mt Cook, in 2015.

He plans to transform the two-storey brick-and-masonry building into an eight-level hotel, retaining the historic facade. Construction hasn’t begun, though Parbhu hoped works would begin soon after he filed for permission to lay the new foundation late last year.

The Toomath building – constructed in 1900 by the estate of prominent settler Edward Toomath – was badly damaged in a fire in 2023.

The Adelaide Hotel (also known as the Tramway Hotel) is one of the only properties that has ever been subject to penalties under the law.

Six years after the strengthening deadlines passed, Wellington City Council asked the court in 2019 for permission to strengthen the Adelaide Hotel and a second derelict and quake-prone property, the Toomaths building on Ghuznee Street.

Both owners opposed the move.

Eventually, the courts granted the landmark order in 2021. But soon after, the news emerged that Parbhu had been granted resource consent to construct 40 serviced apartments.

Similarly, the council didn’t touch the Toomath’s building. The heritage-protected Edwardian property remained cordoned off until it caught fire in 2023.

The building owner had promised to begin repairs several months earlier. After the blaze, the building was demolished.

The well-known Herbert Gardens apartment building on The Terrace is earthquake prone and needs strengthening.

The working group is also assessing “compliance and enforcement challenges”.

More than 150 buildings across the motu have a lapsed notice, where owners failed to demolish or strengthen their property by their mandated deadline. The highest numbers of outstanding buildings are in Gisborne, Ashburton and Carterton.

Wellington city councillor Iona Pannett said local government has rarely stepped in to enforce the law – although that’s the way it should be. The council’s legal steps against the two owners were “absolutely the last resort”, she said.

“There’s a cost to ratepayers every time you go off and take someone to court.”

Pannett said that most owners of quake-prone buildings simply can’t afford to strengthen. With their local relationships, councils are well-placed to determine when using “the big stick” of enforcement is warranted, she said. “Who else would do it?”

But if the Government expects the law to be enforced in court, then it should fund the legal costs, she said. “Politicians have not resourced [anyone] to do this work.”