A rare double shot: Two Wellington landmarks up for sale
Tuesday, 18 November 2025
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One of the most beautiful heritage buildings in the heart of Island Bay has been listed for sale, offering buyers a rare opportunity to own an irreplaceable piece of history.
Erskine Chapel is an historic one of a kind French Gothic building fully restored with a breathtaking high ribbed ceiling, stained glass windows and with acoustics that can’t be matched.
It had been part of Erskine College, a former Catholic Girls Boarding school. The school was part of the Convent of the Sacred Heart founded by nuns from the Society of the Sacred Heart - Sacré Coeur.
The school name was changed to Erskine College in the late 1960s.
The school closed in 1985 and the land around the chapel sold off. The school buildings were demolished in 2018. Now it is a series of town houses.
The chapel itself, at 22-24 Erica Pabst Way, has been restored and earthquake strengthened.
Property developer Ian Cassels bought the college and rundown chapel in 2000.
In 2018, the Environment Court ruled he could demolish the school buildings, but not the chapel — which had to be saved and strengthened.
Restoration proved to be a bigger headache than Cassels anticipated, he told The Post in 2023.
The complex work included strengthening unreinforced masonry buttresses with steel, tying back masonry and strengthening gable end walls with steel rods.
The restored building - a category 1 listed building won an architecture award in 2024 - is being marketed by CBRE. It is considered the finest example of French Gothic architecture in the country.
“Inspired by a chapel in Alsace Lorraine, France, it features a soaring vaulted ceiling, exquisite Italian Carrara marble interiors, and acoustics considered amongst the very best in the Southern Hemisphere. Currently operating as a premier events venue and over the years, Erskine Chapel has hosted renowned performers including multiple visits from the Vienna Boys Choir,” CBRE’s site says.
It is also recognised on the Wellington City Council Heritage List.
The site is 2294sqm and is being sold by deadline/tender closing on December 11.
But if something different but with just as much historic significance to Wellington and steeped in coffee beans is what you are after, the Havana Coffee Works buildings is also for sale.
Bayley’s is marketing the flagship unit-titled green corner building. It was built around1950, and contains the roastery, café/coffee lounge, administration offices and a six-bedroom penthouse apartment and/or commercial space.
The adjacent freehold pink standalone 1980s building is currently interconnected to the main premises for efficiency and offers ground-floor workshop/dispatch area with an upper-level office space.
Co-founded by Wellington’s godfather of coffee Geoff Marsland, Havana was bought by Lion NZ in 2018. Marsland owns the three-level green Art Deco-styled building at the corner of Tory and Francis Place in Te Aro, along with the adjoining pink two-storey building.
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