Deadline passes: TDHL to consider offers on CBD properties

Tuesday, 4 March 2025

The deadline for offers on four properties owned by TDHL on Timaru’s Stafford St closed on Saturday.

The deadline for offers on four properties at the south end of Timaru’s CBD has passed, with Timaru council’s holdings company expected to consider what it has on the table this week.

The properties, owned by Timaru District Holdings Ltd, were listed with Timaru real estate agent Michelle Greer of Ray White and offered up for sale in December.

Marketed as prime commercial sites on Timaru’s main street suitable for a motel, new mall, shops, commercial shed or green zone, the properties at 101-111 and 123 Stafford St were offered for sale in an as-is-where-is condition.

The deadline for offers closed on Saturday.

On Monday, TDHL general manager Frazer Munro said he was not yet in a position to comment on how the process had gone as he was yet to review the offers and discuss them with the board.

TDHL general manager Frazer Munro said he was yet to review the offers and share those with the board.

Munro said he hoped to do that at the next board meeting on Wednesday.

The four properties were purchased by TDHL in 2018, along with 117-119 Stafford St, for $1.7million.

TDHL has held on to the former Union Bank of Australia building at 117-119 Stafford St and is restoring and developing it as a mixed-use office space.

TDHL chief executive Frazer Munro has been overseeing the restoration of the bluestone building that originally housed the Union Bank of Australia.

At the time of listing the properties, Munro said it was a good time to test the market with the council offering a clear direction for the future of the precinct around the Theatre Royal across the road.

“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 also 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.

He also said TDHL expected a “commercial price” for the properties, which would play an “important part in the revitalisation of the CBD”.

A screenshot of the property listing on the Ray White website.

It was the first time the holdings company had enlisted the services of a real estate agent to sell the properties, having previously called for expressions of interest itself.

On Monday, Greer said she was unable to make any comment on the interest in the properties or whether any offers had been made due to “confidentiality”.

The property at 101 Stafford St includes a flat upstairs and a former retail store on the ground level, it has an approximate floor area of 360sqm and land area of 252sqm.

The Majestic Theatre, centre, and properties pictured to the left of it as well as the property at the far right (red brick) were offered up for sale in December, with offers closing on Saturday.

Next to that, 105 has two street accesses, including one off Turnbull St, and a shed/warehouse space, an office, off-street parking for up to 12 cars, and a floor area of 540sqm and land area of 725sqm.

Next to that sits the former Majestic Theatre building (107-111 Stafford St). Sitting on 1045sqm of land, the property has a commercial zoning and includes one of the oldest theatre’s in the Southern Hemisphere.

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 property at 123 Stafford St is a 506sqm standalone site and has been used as a nightclub, with accommodation upstairs, commercial office space, and conference rooms.

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, with TDHL selling the three properties for $360,000 - less than a third of what it had paid for them. However, by January 2023 TDHL confirmed it had bought the properties back with the company saying the hotel project was no longer viable.

An artist's impression of how a redeveloped Majestic Theatre could look.

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.

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 2024, a group of heritage advocates formed Majestic Timaru with the aim of finding a use for the building and saving it from demolition.

Majestic Timaru has been approached for comment and asked if it made an offer for the property the theatre sits on.