TDHL puts Timaru CBD properties on market

Friday, 20 December 2024

The buildings now on the market are pictured and include the former Majestic Theatre (centre), buildings to the immediate right of it and 123 Stafford St which has the white car parked outside it near the bottom of the image.

A row of properties at the southern end of Timaru’s CBD, some of which had been lined up for demolition, are officially on the market.

Four of the five properties which the district council’s holdings company, Timaru District Holdings Limited (TDHL), purchased in 2018 for $1.7 million have been put up for sale.

They include the former National Mortgage & Agency House, the Majestic Theatre, and buildings between that and the Gladstone Board of Works Building.

The other property, the former Union Bank of Australia at 117-119 Stafford St, was being restored and developed by TDHL as a mixed-use office space.

TDHL general manager Frazer Munro said, with the council offering a clear direction for the precinct around the Theatre Royal, which sits directly opposite the buildings, it was a good time to see what appetite the market had for the properties.

A drawing of how a redeveloped Theatre Royal might look.

“We’ve always said that we are open to offers on the sites, so now that we have a degree of surety over the progression of the Theatre Royal, we have decided to formally offer these properties for sale and test the market’s appetite.”

Munro said there would be no additional expectations put on the buildings, or their future use, “outside of the standard planning rules”.

That was in contrast to 2021, when TDHL called for expressions of interest in the properties and specified its preference that any development of them should complement the Theatre Royal and then planned heritage facility.

The former Majestic Theatre (centre) sits opposite the Theatre Royal and is one of the four properties listed for sale this week. (File photo)

“We believe this flexibility will increase the attractiveness of the proposition for developers and enable the kind of development that will add to the entertainment and heritage precinct being envisaged across the road.”

In October, almost five years after the Theatre Royal was closed for renovation, Timaru District councillors voted in favour of progressing with a new plan to redevelop it and land around it.

Josh Newlove with new plans for the Theatre Royal

On Wednesday, a council spokesperson said it had called for registrations of interest from “invited local suppliers only” for the role of lead architect for the “Theatre Royal and Museum Storage Facility Development Design”.

They said that invite was issued on December 5 via the Government’s free electronic tender service website, Gets, which aims to provide open, fair competition for central and local government contracts.

They said that process would close on Friday (December 20) and was not available for public viewing as it was invite only.

Munro said Timaru’s Ray White agency listed TDHL’s properties from 101-111 and 123 Stafford St for sale by deadline treaty which closed on March 1, 2025.

“While we expect a commercial price for these properties, the sites will play an important part in the revitalisation of the CBD, and we remain confident that in time, a suitable development opportunity will arise.

Some of the buildings on Stafford St, which TDHL purchased in 2018, that are now on the market.

“We would say to anyone that has been looking at the sites and thinking of ways they could be either reused or redeveloped, now is the time to come and talk to us.”

When it purchased the properties, TDHL did so with the intention of enabling “the sites to be combined and on sold to a developer as a single 3700 square metre site”.

However, that did not work out.

A proposal by Thompson Engineering and Construction to build a hotel on part of the site, was accepted in July 2022. However, by January 2023 TDHL confirmed it had bought the properties back with the company saying the hotel project was no longer viable.

In September 2023, TDHL confirmed a plan to demolish the buildings from 101-107 Stafford St, including the Majestic Theatre, to make way for a green space.

An artist’s impression of a hotel proposed for part of the land on Stafford St. The project was dumped and TDHL bought the land back off the developer.

The demolition, which the council consented, prompted heritage advocates to speak out in the hope the historic Majestic Theatre could be saved.

The demolition was expected to start early in 2024, but was delayed due to the discovery of asbestos, and eventually shelved.

In March, a group of heritage advocates formed Majestic Timaru with the aim of finding a use for the building and saving it from demolition.

In August, the group became an incorporated society.