Centre plans quashed

A decade-long plan to transform Takapuna’s historic former library building into a centre for art and cultural exhibitions has been dealt a fatal blow.

The Devonport-Takapua Local Board has denied the Shore Exhibition Centre Trust’s request for a one-year lease agreement for the heritage building at 2 The Strand in Takapuna.

Trust chairman Christopher Johnstone said the decision has put an end to the centre’s future at the site. ‘‘Our work after a decade or so has come to an end, which is very disappointing,’’ he said.

The trust was established in 2009 to develop a ‘‘national standard’’ exhibition centre in Takapuna. The former North Shore City Council supported the project, and upwards of $1 million was earmarked for the development.

But the funding was pulled and it fell to the Auckland Regional Services Trust, a then subsidiary of the Auckland Regional Council, to put $300,000 into the project.

Since 2013, the trust has fruitlessly sought an agreement to lease the building.

The Devonport-Takapuna Local Board wanted a solid business plan, with strong funding commitments from donors, before they would grant the lease.

But Johnstone said in agreeing to the lease, the board would have given the trust the leverage needed to go to potential donors to secure funding.

‘‘We weren’t looking for money, we were looking for time, and the time was to put all these things in place,’’ he said.

At a board meeting earlier this month, the board once and for all refused the trust’s lease request.

But the door had been left ‘‘ajar’’, Johnstone said, with the board committing to investigate alternative uses and potential occupants for the council-owned building.

It ruled the work should involve the trust, which will retain its $270,000 residual funds until future decisions are made on the building’s future.

Board deputy chairman George Wood said this was a ‘‘lifeline’’ for the trust to explore other possibilities for the centre.

He said he would like to see the building return to community use, or as a possible location for the Devonport-Takapuna Local Board to move into.

Johnstone said the trust would remain intact while it retained funds, and until a final decision on the library site was made.

‘‘We won’t wind up, but we’re kind of on ice,’’ he said.

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‘‘We weren't looking for money, we were looking for [time]’’ Christopher Johnstone

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SIMON MAUDE/FAIRFAX NZ A community trust is dismayed its 10-year long battle for an art and cultural exhibition centre in a historic Takapuna building has been lost.