Hotere studio for artists; process unclear
THE future of a studio of late New Zealand artist Ralph Hotere on Observation Point at Port Chalmers is again in the headlines,
Its owner and Port Otago are at loggerheads over its preservation.
Mr Hotere’s house at Observation Point was demolished in 1993 to make way for Port Otago expansion.
Mr Hotere died in February 2013, aged 81.
It appears both studio owner Naomi Wilson and Port Otago want to retain the studio as an artists’ residence, but not with the pair being part of any joint venture.
Mr Hotere’s widow, Mary McFarlane, and port identity and former community board member Lana Oranji, yesterday both made brief presentations to Port Otago’s owner, the Otago Regional Council.
They wanted the Hotere studio retained for the use of artists in the future.
‘‘Ralph built much of it. It’s a historic place up there and needs to be retained,’’ Mrs McFarlane said.
Mrs Oranji said the studio in Aurora Tce was now ‘‘surrounded’’ by demolished homes.
She suggested an independent arbiter be appointed to settle the issue
‘‘I hope the plan is not to demolish it,’’ Mrs Oranji said.
The studio was initially part of the stables of the original house; the latter and another studio since demolished, and has been owned for almost 40 years by Naomi Wilson, who was reluctant to be interviewed yesterday.
She said that ‘‘yes’’ she would like to see the studio retained as an artists’ residence, and had ‘‘some options’’ in trying to set up a trust herself.
The studio should be saved as it was imbued with the ‘‘wairua’’, or spirit of Mr Hotere, who did many of his best art works while at Observation Point, she said.
When asked about working with Port Otago, she said they had been ‘‘bad corporate neighbours’’, and because they had bought up all the adjacent buildings ‘‘the neighbourhood had been destroyed’’.
Since 200405, Port Otago had spent $2.86 million in acoustic treatments, monitoring and separately buying four properties, the latter costing $1 million.
After the ORC meeting, Port Otago chief executive Kevin Winders said offers had been made to Ms Wilson five years ago and most recently a year ago. Neither offer to Ms Wilson was to buy the freehold property, but $35,000 was offered for an option to buy, Ms Wilson living rentfree and when she died the studio would be put in trust for artists.
Because of port noise issues, Mr Winders said the company was obliged under the district plan to offer noise treatments to houses, or offer to buy them.
Mr Winders said, ‘‘Port Otago would preserve the building, in trust, and sponsor it to make it an artists’ retreat.’’
Mr Winders said he hoped to meet Ms Wilson in the future and offered to take interested ORC councillors to meet her as well.
A FLAT firsthalf trading performance by Port Otago — undermined by inclement weather conditions — is expected to pick up during the remainder of the year.
Port Otago chairman Dave Faulkner told 100% owner the Otago Regional Council yesterday, the trading period was impacted by the agricultural ‘‘grass curve’’, of a very wet spring affecting growth and production, followed by hot summer conditions, influencing meat and log exports.
‘‘A ‘satisfactory’ result means it was not as good as we would have liked; exports were lower but we expect to catch up in the second half,’’ Mr Faulkner told councillors yesterday.
Despite the flat result, the interim dividend to the ORC rose from $3.5 million a year ago to $3.6 million.
For the six months to December, Port Otago group revenue was down from $52.3 million a year ago to $44.3 million and profit declined from $10.3 million to $8.3 million.
There were several issues during the period, being a slower start to the container season, lower volumes of export logs, overall 9% less imports and exports and less of a contribution from subsidiary Chalmers Properties land sales, down from $8.8 million to $384,000.
‘‘The second half of the year will be stronger from the dairy, meat and apples to come through,’’ Mr Faulkner said.
He said investment property rentals had increased by 4% to $6.8 million.
He highlighted more Hamilton land sales on 8.4ha were coming to fruition and hoped payments of $30 million would be ‘‘triggered’’ before the end of the financial year, in June.
Also, there was 3.3ha of presold land expected to be settled in 201920.
Chalmers Properties land in Dunedin had fallen to below 50% to 47% of its entire portfolio.
Cr Michael Laws asked if that meant Port Otago had lost confidence in Dunedin property.
Mr Faulkner said ‘‘No’’, it was that longterm lessees who wanted to redevelop their properties had purchased land from Chalmers Properties.
Profits from land sales would not necessarily be reinvested back into Dunedin, but across the subsidiary’s entire portfolio, Mr Faulkner said.
Cr Ella Lawton asked, given noise complaints and other issues the community faced, whether there were any ‘‘limits to growth’’ or point at which Port Otago would ‘‘call it quits for the sake of the community’’.
Mr Faulkner said there was already a growth restraint in place.
‘‘It’s geophysical, we’re restricted by what [land] is there,’’ he said.
Mr Faulkner said he expected cargo volumes would would recover in the second half, to slightly higher than last year, but cautioned that depended on the ‘‘grass curve’’ and weather conditions for the primary sector.
Ships calling for the six months edged beyond 250, including 100 container ships, 43 cruise ships and the balance in an increasing number of bulk cargo ships.
While exports and imports on average were down 9% each, the transhipment of containers at Port Chalmers, shiptoship, was up 39%, from 12,000 to 17,000.