University unhappy about $1.5m spend on ‘eyesore’ Gordon Wilson Flats

Thursday, 6 March 2025

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Victoria University has spent more than $1.5 million on legal fees, maintenance and security for squatters and trespassers on the run-down Gordon Wilson flats.

Vice-Chancellor Nic Smith said it was a “tragedy” that the money could instead have been used to grant more than 100 full scholarships to students.

“My university has spent $1.5m on a building that is earth-quake prone, asbestos infused and uninhabited,” he said.

The flats, which have sat empty since 2012, cost the university $100,000 a year to maintain. That included securing the building and perimeter fencing, removing graffiti, CCTV maintenance, call-outs and patrols.

Squatting and trespassing was behind ongoing security costs, with a perimeter fence built to try and stop people from entering the building which was considered “a safety hazard”.

Meanwhile, the legal fees throughout the decade-long heritage war had a $500,000 price tag.

With plans to house 500 students in the university’s new student accommodation, Smith said 5000 students could have been homed if it had been turned into student accommodation from the start.

This year, the university had seen a 13% increase in demand for student accommodation.

Smith, who made an oral submission to the Environment Select Committee on Monday, said students had been denied warm, safe and affordable accommodation, and the university had turned prospective students away because the barrier was “just too high”.

Building student accommodation on the site was the “current preference”, said chief operating officer Tina Wakefield.

“The site would be ideal for accommodation as it is well positioned for all three campuses and close to the CBD – which would enable students to be able to move between work, study and exploring what our city has to offer.”

It’s a U-turn from their previous preference for the site ‒ the multi-million dollar Te Huanui project, which planned to extend the university campus with “state-of-the-art teaching and research facilities”, a cafe, lecture theatres, research spaces and a pedestrian link, including an elevator, towards the Kelburn campus above.

Wakefield said the university was at the scoping phase and needed to consider a number of options regarding cost, building footprint and capacity, and create a strong business case to secure funding.

“In this current economic environment, and with the heritage building status, we are still considering the best way to progress the development of the site.”

The increased demand for student accommodation had driven the opening of the Whānau Mārama Apartments in Haining St early last year. This year, the university took over the building at 222 Willis St from Massey University.

Wellington City Councillor Ben McNulty said the dysfunctional heritage laws continued to hinder opportunities in the city.

“Instead of housing students in quality accommodation and generating economic activity, Gordon Wilson is left to rot.”

Green MP Tamatha Paul, who advocated for the flats to become student accommodation during her time on the council, said it was essential and imperative that the university do something with that land, or sell it.

She said she didn’t want to hear the university complaining about how costly it was to let the apartments sit there when it understood what it was buying at the time.

“It’s just an eyesore at the moment, the building continues to degrade as the days go on … it's time to do something.”

She said building affordable housing was “a matter of survival” for the university.

“If you're not rich, you have to have a big scholarship to afford to live in those halls, and I know that because that is exactly what I had to do in 2016. Their numbers will drop if they don't provide housing. The university has to do it.”

Sammy Carter, who lived nearby, said she heard sirens for trespassers go off about once a day.

“It’s not super clear what the heritage stamp is trying to protect. It’s not like the land and the building has been up kept and protected. It’s by a lot of student flats filled with young, vibrant people. It’s by the uni. We need more housing by the uni.”

Mayor Tory Whanau said a change in the Resource Management Act to remove the heritage listing of derelict, quake-prone buildings like the Gordon Wilson Flats would help address the housing crisis.

She supported the move, and would continue to work in collaboration with the minister and the university to see what the council could do.

Strict heritage laws have made the flats near-impossible to demolish since tenants were evacuated in 2012 for a report that found the building at risk of falling concrete slabs in an earthquake or strong winds.

But new laws going to its third reading in June could give councils broader powers to delist buildings from their heritage status through a “streamlined planning process”.

It comes after then housing minister Chris Bishop declined the Wellington City Council’s application to get rid of the flats’ heritage status ‒ along with nine others ‒ in its District Plan.

Bishop personally agreed with the move but was forced to reject the application for not having enough evidence. At the time, he said the continued existence of the flats was “an ugly scar on the Wellington skyline”.

“The property owners want it gone. The community wants it gone. Even the council wants it gone.

“But still it stands – held up only by crumbling walls and a crumbling heritage system that values the preservation of falling-down eyesores over growth and modernity.”

The university has tried to delist the flats multiple times. In 2016, it had almost managed it, only to have the Environment Court uphold an appeal a year later.

Early last year, the housing panel rejected the university’s submission due to a failure to attend the meeting in person and provide ample evidence.

The Gordon Wilson Flats have historic significance for their role as high-density state housing, and for their association with government architect Gordon Wilson.

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