Why Wellington’s heritage buildings stay empty

Saturday, 23 September 2023

They’re fenced off and covered with years of graffiti, many empty for a decade or more. Why are heritage buildings being left to rot?

The Gordon Wilson Flats are the classic example, a 180-room Modernist housing block looming over the city as a constant reminder that the university has so far failed in its crusade to get the heritage listing removed.

Another example is the Toomath’s Building, so unsafe in the heart of the city on Ghuznee St that the council makes people walk past its unreinforced walls in a shipping container. The council won a series of court cases against the owners of that building and the Adelaide Hotel — but two years on both remain empty, with no sign the 10-years-overdue earthquake strengthening work is beginning.

Heritage advocate Felicity Wong, from Historic Places Wellington, says each of the buildings deserves its place on the protected list.

Gordon Wilson had an “innovative maisonette and studio design [which] provides compact living spaces”; the Tramways Hotel has “strong local heritage” as the pub which people could drink at before entering Newtown’s historically “dry” area.

Preserving these buildings adds something to our lives, she says. “It’s about diversity, history, enjoyment of public space and our collective and individual memory which helps us envisage a better future.”

Heritage buildings are a conundrum because they are protected for the public’s enjoyment, but private property owners are expected to wear the cost of complying with those protections.

Councillor Rebecca Matthews says heritage buildings are “becoming ridiculously expensive” to restore, even for relatively well-resourced building owners like the city council. She points to the example of the Town Hall.

Originally, in 2012, the council’s cost of restoring and strengthening the building was estimated at just $30m for a two-year restoration. A decade later, work continues and the cost is estimated at $182m.

Maurice Clark is an experienced property developer, who has won accolades for his redevelopments of heritage buildings, including the MBIE building and the Public Trust Hall.

He doesn’t take on heritage developments because they are economically viable, but he likes heritage and wants to preserve it.

“I’ve learned my lesson,” he says. There is “no doubt” in his mind that a heritage listing makes developments more expensive and complicated, and he is sympathetic towards owners of deteriorating buildings feeling burdened by the rules.

Other building owners can demolish their earthquake-unsafe buildings and rebuild from the ground up. Heritage buildings must remain, unless they are seriously dangerous. Modifications, even for earthquake strengthening, require resource consents and expert advice, all of which increases the cost.

Managing public expectations can be a challenge too, Clark says. Small details became a sticking point, with people telling him: “No, no, no, you can’t change that.”

When the sale of St Gerard’s Monastery piqued Clark’s interest earlier this year, it was advice from his chief financial officer and a threat of divorce from his wife, Kaye, that held him back.

“I actually have to ban myself from looking at [buildings] in case I get excited,” he says.

His latest heritage project is a redevelopment of the Chinese Mission Hall, an unassuming church building on the corner of Frederick St — which Felicity Wong describes as “extraordinary kindness” to the people of Wellington.

But one developer cannot restore all of Wellington heritage buildings, 120 of which will reach their earthquake strengthening deadline within a decade. If they’re not strengthened, they’ll have to shut.

The key thing Clark looks for before taking on heritage developments is whether it’s easy to see an end use for the development. For some buildings languishing in the city, that is “nigh on impossible”.

Wong’s message to owners of disused heritage buildings is to “get out of the way”, sell the property and let someone else develop the building. They need “an economic use and modern utilities”.

The question is whether anyone else would take them on. Matthews says not many people are willing to take on the “bundle of challenges” that go with restoring a heritage building, particularly with today’s steep costs of construction.

Even the Government is reluctant to keep these buildings. The New Zealand Defence Force’s Army Headquarters building, from which New Zealand’s WWI operations were directed, is another example of unreinforced masonry requiring a shipping container for passers-by to walk through.

Wong hopes to see it used as an exhibition space providing a “fitting reminder of the history of conflict” near the war memorial.

Defence Force estate strategy manager Phil Gurnsey say the building has been declared surplus and is going through the disposal process. It could soon be put up for sale, if offers to former owners and Taranaki Whānui are not taken up.

Even where strengthening work is legally required, it’s a long road for the council to get private building owners to take action.

The Wellington City Council succeeded in taking the owners of the Toomath’s Building and the Adelaide Hotel to court, meaning the council can enter, do the required seismic work, and charge it back to the owners if needed.

It hasn’t come to that. Both owners have plans for work on the buildings. The council confirmed the owner of the Toomath’s Building, a company called Scoter Ventures, was issued a resource consent for strengthening in April last year.

It’s not clear whether the work will be carried out — it was the latest in a long series of consents that haven’t resulted in work being done. No-one from the company responded to The Post’s inquiry about the building.

The owner of the Tramways Hotel, Denis Parbhu through Lakhi Maa Investments, said he was still “very much committed” to carrying out a planned redevelopment, which would see an eight-level hotel constructed while maintaining the historic facade at the street level.

Council spokesperson Richard MacLean said the city council believed this resource consent was unlikely to be used in the near future and was considering its options.

The Gordon Wilson Flats, too, were likely to continue languishing. Prime land overlooking the city and visible all over is taken up by the empty block of apartments, originally designed for social housing but now owned by Victoria University of Wellington.

Former Vice Chancellor Grant Guilford described the block as a “never-to-be-repeated architectural faux pas, of novelty value to architectural connoisseurs” and the university has taken several swings at removing the building’s heritage status.

University staff have spent the past few years preparing another application to demolish the heritage building, in order to construct Te Huanui, pitched as a gateway between the city and the Kelburn campus.

Chief operating officer Simon Johnson says the application will no longer go to the council because the university is continuing to focus on its finances.

The Dixon Street Flats, owned by Kāinga Ora and also designed by architect Gordon Wilson, still have a few residents but will soon be another empty heritage building.

Inside the flats were a disruptive and often unclean living environment, tenants have reported.

“Given the age, [the] flats are no longer meeting the current standards of living,” said Vicki McLaren, Wellington regional director for Kāinga Ora .

The tenants are being moved out, or “decanted”, in policy speak.

The building’s future is unclear, but like the others, demolition is not on the table. Kāinga Ora has to decide whether it is worth it to restore.

According to Matthews, it seems like heritage comes first, ahead of the utility of buildings. Maybe, she says, the city needs to be more selective about the heritage list.