Wellington’s 13 Garrett St to be redeveloped into new events space, offices
Friday, 10 July 2026
The legendary 13 Garrett St flats, one of Wellington’s best-known creative spaces, will be vacated later this year and forced to stop hosting publicly promoted events as the building undergoes mandatory earthquake strengthening ahead of a major redevelopment.
The owners say work will ultimately allow the ground floor to reopen as a purpose-built bar and events space, while the upper levels will become character offices.
It’s believed that since the 1990s, the building has functioned as a grassroots community arts hub. Today it houses 16 people across its first and second floors, while the ground floor is leased to two retail spaces: coffee shop Pour and Twist, and vintage store Dirty Laundry.
On Instagram on Wednesday, the residential community that calls the upper floors home wrote that, due to a complaint that triggered a city council investigation, all publicly-promoted events would cease at the property.
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The residents’ tenancies would end on November 22 as the owners begin redevelopment of the building, the post said.
Originally called Morrisons’ Building and built in 1937 to house a printing business, the site was first determined as quake-prone in 2012. A deadline of 2031 had been given for the completion of seismic work.
William and Emily Broadmore, who purchased the building in December, said that in taking on the quake strengthening, “we were aware this moment would come”.
“We are doing everything we can to ensure the redevelopment continues offering a community, as it has for decades. We are proud to be supporting a young Wellingtonian, Jack Parry, to set up an exciting new multi-purpose events venue on the ground floor,” the pair said.
“We acknowledge this marks the end of an era for the community who lived in this building for decades.”
Due to a technicality the building is unable to remain as residential after strengthening work.
Éimhín O'Shea, a resident of the 13 Garrett St flats and spokesperson for the group that lives there, said they complied with instructions as soon as they were received. The group was not deliberately acting outside building code rules.
The owners were clear in their intention to redevelop the space after purchasing the building, so moving out was always on the cards, O’Shea added.
About eight people lived in each of the first and second-floor flats, but the collective acts as a single community of artists, musicians and activists with shared values.
Part of the group’s kaupapa was consensus decision-making. Its residents love the building’s central city location - just off Cuba St and opposite Glover Park.
O’Shea - who has lived in the flats for about two years, but prior to that was hanging around the community - said the various iterations of flatmates over the last decades had helped contribute to a huge number of local events.
Since the building’s sale, its residents had been working on an online archive project about 13 Garrett St - inviting everybody who had stories and links to the building’s history, to make submissions to the archive.
“We want to try and honour that in a big way,” O’Shea said. “We have a wonderful community. … I wouldn’t trade it for the world.”
The group was sad to leave and plotting its next steps - including putting the call out for another community space in Wellington they could use - even if they can’t all live there.
O’Shea said it felt like the end of one of Wellington’s last long-standing collective community spaces. The residents group wanted to thank everybody who’d made the space what it is today, including all flatmates past and present.
13 Garrett St had been known among Wellington circles for DIY gigs, potluck dinners, fundraisers, movie nights, and casual live music. The building featured in the TV series After The Party, and helped to form bands like So So Modern.
The building was the site of tragedy in 2013, when 22-year-old Jess Brough died after falling two storeys.
Wellington City Council spokesperson Victoria Barton-Chapple said current building code and compliance regulations didn’t permit the building to operate as a nightclub, bar, or event space.
“The council has set out its vision and partnership with the creative sector on supporting groups and artists, and providing access to new and underused spaces to host events, and develop and showcase work,” Barton-Chapple said.
“This support still needs to comply with building and planning regulations to ensure that the fire safety, means of escape, structural integrity, sanitation and accessibility of the spaces are maintained for audiences, neighbours and performers.”
Pour and Twist and Dirty Laundry were approached for comment.
The new development
British-born Jack Parry, who is working with the Broadmores to redevelop the building, has called the capital home for about seven years and says the new ground floor venue will help counter the connotation that Wellington’s nightlife culture is stagnating.
With a background in events across both the United Kingdom and in Aotearoa, Parry is also working with Allistar Cox on the redevelopment. Cox was the architect behind the reimagining of the now-closed Cuba St haunt Matterhorn.
Parry said the vision for the new venue was for it to be open to the community. At its core, it would be a music-led cultural venue - “much more than just a place where you come for a drink”.
While design plans were still to be confirmed and subject to compliance approval, one working idea was for a relaxed Alice in Wonderland-style bar at the front of the premises, which will widen out into a venue space.
It’s hoped the venue may be able to host between 300 and 400 people.
There was no word yet on the venue’s potential name, nor a set timeline for the redevelopment’s completion.
People can submit to the 13 Garrett St archive at museumofgarrett.com