Charity hospital land snapped up for doomed mass transit

Wednesday, 18 October 2023

Imagery of the proposed He Ringa Āwhina - Wellington Regional Charity Hospital building at 23 Adelaide Rd.

A charity hospital that was to be built near the Basin Reserve has been muscled out by Let’s Get Wellington Moving (LGWM) — a project the National Party has vowed to scrap.

Waka Kotahi NZ Transport Agency has confirmed it has bought a 1207m2 site at 23 Adelaide Rd, on the corner of Girton Terrace which, until this week, was to be home to a 3-storey hospital offering minor surgeries such as hernia repair and eye surgery.

He Ringa Āwhina Wellington Regional Charity Hospital had building consent for the site, intended as a free service to help address unmet health need. The developer had hoped to complete the build by September 2025.

That was until the hospital’s chief executive Vita Lo Iacono received a call from the developer on Monday night saying the project — two years in the making — no longer had a home.

“It’s a shame… To get to the point of picking the option on Adelaide Road, we looked at some 20 different places.”

23 Adelaide Rd, on the right, was to be home to a charity hospital until Waka Kotahi acquired it for potential mass transit programmes.

The board remained determined to see the project through but the curveball would delay it indefinitely, he said.

Waka Kotahi confirmed it had bought the land under the Public Works Act for “potential use” for LGWM. Wellington’s after hours services next door are not affected.

“This property is considered likely to be critical for improvements at the Basin Reserve and future mass rapid transit component projects of the LGWM transformational programme,“ system design national manager Robyn Elston said.

One of the goals of the transformational programme was to have mass rapid transit — of which light rail is the preferred option — with higher density housing along the stretch.

National’s Nicola Willis, during The Post 2023 Finance Debate during the campaign. Willis has said since the election National remained opposed to light rail.

National campaigned on ditching LGWM but keeping a second Mt Victoria tunnel, making changes around the Basin Reserve and adding another road from Petone to Grenada.

The leader’s office did not respond to a request for comment on Tuesday. But Nicola Willis, the presumed finance minister and deputy prime minister in the new National-led government, on Sunday said the party remained opposed to light rail.

LGWM declined to respond to questions, referring The Post’s query to Waka Kotahi as the purchaser of the property.

Waka Kotahi said it bought the site in a voluntary deal because it heard it was being considered for development, which “would have made any future purchase significantly more costly and more disruptive for future tenants.”

That said: “Waka Kotahi is not, in general, proactively purchasing property for this project right now.”

Let's Get Wellington Moving’s proposed plans for mass rapid transit routes and changes to the Basin Reserve, near the site at Adelaide Rd.

So far, number 23 was the only site the agency had bought on Adelaide Rd.

Greater Wellington Regional Council transport committee head Thomas Nash said buying land along the stretch made sense because it was part of a planned mass transit corridor.

Buying land along the Courtenay Place to Newtown stretch would also open up space for “much needed” housing and urban development, Nash said.

David Loveridge, from the site’s previous owners 23 Adelaide Road Ltdsaid it was disappointing to lose the site after the immense effort and time spent on it, “but better now than when we are further down the track”.

Loveridge said he already had a couple of alternative spots in his sights. “To be honest, one of them might be even better.”

If the land is no longer needed, the Act states it can be sold but must first be offered back to the person it was purchased from, or their successor, at current market value.

Additional reporting by Tom Hunt.