Derelict station verdict close
The fate of Palmerston North’s derelict former police station could be decided by the end of next week.
The old police station, in Church St, is part of Rangita¯ ne o Manawatu¯ ’s Treaty of Waitangi settlement. But the station was left to deteriorate while under Crown control and the iwi is yet to decide if the property is worth the financial risk.
It has previously been declared a health and safety risk due to mould, and collapsed or collapsing sections of floors and ceilings, as well as pre-existing issues with asbestos.
Rangita¯ ne and the Crown have been negotiating for more than a year over the station.
‘‘It’s been a long and tortuous process, but we’re getting very close to the end,’’ Rangita¯ne o Manawatu¯ Investment Trust chairman Ruma Karaitiana said.
Karaitiana said Rangita¯ ne had considered turning the station into a tech hub, but its dilapidated state made that financially risky.
Doing anything with the property is likely to involve high demolition and contamination cleanup costs, with additional costs due to part of the building having heritage status.
Karaitiana’s team have analysed the costs and risks of taking on the building, and recently presented their findings to the Rangita¯ne o Manawatu¯ Settlement Trust’s board of trustees.
‘‘We’ve put a business case [on our options] to the settlement trust board, who are meeting next week to decide what to do.’’
Karaitiana said if the board decided the iwi didn’t want the property, negotiations with the Crown would end and the old police station would remain in the Crown land bank.
If the iwi chooses to go ahead, negotiations will continue, and Karaitiana expects an agreement would be hammered out early in the new year.
The right to own the old police station was part of Rangita¯ne’s compensation for confiscation of the iwi’s land, and purchase of tribal land from non-rangita¯ne Ma¯ ori who migrated to the area, leaving the iwi effectively landless by the 1990s. A Treaty settlement, signed in 2015, granted the iwi $13.5 million in financial redress, the renaming and vesting of Crown-owned sites to the iwi, and the establishment of a Manawatu¯ River advisory board.
Karaitiana said the iwi had two preferred forms of compensation – property or money.
‘‘Rangita¯ ne decided to take it mostly in cash, and the only property we got outright in the settlement was the Blair Tennent Hall site [on Fitzherbert Ave].’’
The settlement also gives the iwi first right of refusal on the purchase of several Crown properties around Palmerston North, including the old police station.