Wellington’s historic Bond Store faces fix‑move‑sell showdown

Tuesday, 14 July 2026

First there was the Town Hall, then the City to Sea Bridge followed by the Gordon Wilson flats; now another stoush is brewing, between heritage advocates and the Wellington City Council.

This time it’s over the Bond Store, a council-owned category 1 listed historic building on the waterfront which houses Wellington Museum.

A paper due to go to council next month is expected to lay out future options for the museum, including its potential sale.

Councillors have previously voted to put investigating an alternative site for the museum ‒ run by The Wellington Museums Trust (Experience Wellington) ‒ out for public consultation, while the trust itself has also been exploring the possibility of moving somewhere else, saying “there would be benefits and cost savings if the museum could be housed on a different site.”

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That’s largely due to the long-delayed seismic work required, which council officers say would be significant, with previous analysis suggesting the cost of strengthening the Bond Store and rebuilding or upgrading the museum experience could cost between $40 million at the lower end and $100m.

Councillor Ben McNulty ‒ who in 2025 sought to change protections around “nightmare” heritage listings in the city’s District Plan ‒ wants to see the building sold off.

He believed forking out many millions on strengthening another heritage building was the “ultimate vanity project”‒ and suggested the museum be relocated to Tākina, where it “could help with the financial sustainability of Tākina as a venue.

'I think the best option is to sell it. No-one wants it demolished and it's category one heritage listed, so it's not going to get demolished anyway. But for me, the best option, if we want to keep that building, is that we move the museum, sell it off, and get Wellington ratepayers out of another strengthening quagmire.

“A different type of use such as residential conversion means that the building doesn't have to be strengthened to the same extent that it does for public facility use. That reduces the costs of strengthening and makes it an economic prospect,” he said.

“Personally, if we have $60m to spend on strengthening I think it’s much more important that it is used for somewhere like the MFC (Michael Fowler Centre) given the vast public utility of that venue.”

Heritage advocates, however, are arguing for “cool heads”, saying the council has made too many rushed decisions recently, including the City to Sea Bridge (estimated to cost $90m to fix but now costing $17m); the Begonia House (estimated to cost $25m to fix and now $11m); and the Khandallah Pool (originally to be either gold plated or demolished).

Felicity Wong, chair of Historic Places Wellington, said the museum was one of the council’s most visited sites, attracting more visitors across some months than the zoo.

New earthquake legislation allowed further extensions for strengthening, and that the museum didn’t need work until 2034. Work on specific areas could be staged over many years: “It does not need to be addressed at once … A prudent approach would be to actually cost the work, and consider a range of technological solutions over time.”

She said while McNulty claimed its heritage listing meant the building “can’t be demolished”, it “only means you need a resource consent to demolish”.

He had also led a successful political campaign to de-list numerous Wellington heritage buildings, “but putting that aside the real question is about selling off a beloved public building to fill a financial hole in a nice-to-have project - Tākina”, Wong said.

Redevelopment of the museum in 1999 included extensive earthquake strengthening, with the building being completely base-isolated while also maintaining the original heritage listed interiors and facades.

Further seismic assessments were carried out in 2013 and in 2022, the latter when parts of it were found to be below the 33% NBS (New Building Standard) threshold for being earthquake prone.

It was issued with an earthquake prone building notice the following year, which allowed 7½ years to plan and carry out remedial work.

At the time the council said it had reviewed the latest advice in conjunction with the MBIE Seismic Risk Guidance for Buildings, and there was nothing within the assessment that indicated the Bond Store wasn’t suitable for continued occupation by Wellington Museum.

The new Earthquake Prone Building legislation comes into effect in July 2027.