$67m restoration of St James Theatre stalled for nine months

Restoration of Auckland’s St James Theatre has stalled for nine months and the site of the $67 million project left untouched since late last year.

“We finished up last August/September,” said Steve Bielby of the Auckland Notable Properties Trust, trying to preserve and re-open the Queen St venue built in 1928.

Tours of the theatre are being conducted later this week and Bielby said there was already a waiting list of more than 200 people, which he believed was an indication of strong interest in the Auckland CBD building.

“At the moment, we’re waiting for an answer on the apartment building,” Bielby said of the stalled neighbouring apartment block, planned to rise beside the St James and provide toilets, disabled access and lifts for the theatre. “They’ve had their consent extended. We’ve got all our funds pretty much sorted. But it’s conditional on us delivering an operational theatre and we can’t deliver that,” he said referring for the need for the neighbouring new apartments to provide facilities.

But he is sceptical whether the $250m apartment tower project will come to fruition.

“I just don’t know whether the market is right for building apartments. You have to wonder. I would like to start work on the St James ASAP — tomorrow.

“Unfortunately I can’t do anything more until I have some confirmation on the apartments.

“But we can at least open up the building and people can see what we have to do to restore and upgrade it,” he said.