Brothers cough up $185,000 for old hospital
THE former Waipukurau Hospital has been bought for a song, and may soon be wiped from the landscape.
The decrepit hospital buildings on 3.4 hectares sold for a paltry $185,000 at a well-attended auction yesterday.
The property was bought by Hastings brothers Gary and Russell Deakin for just $5000 more than John Bieniowski paid for it in 2011.
Bieniowski, who bought it sight unseen, decided to sell it after concluding the job of cleaning up the fire-damaged buildings was too great for him. He had been asking $235,000 before choosing to go to auction.
About 60 people crammed into the Professionals real estate office in Waipukurau’s main street, but nearly everyone was there as a spectator. Just the Deakins and two others were bidding, and auctioneer Wayne McDonagh climbed fairly rapidly from the starting bid of $50,000.
‘‘A chance to buy a bit of Waipukurau history . . . a real adventure . . . a chance to express yourself in the community,’’ McDonagh said.
Within 15 minutes it was all over and the crowd shuffled out.
The Deakins, who own Deakin Motors and Deakin Transport in Hastings, were expecting the price to be a little higher.
They plan to start clearing the site in the coming months and say it will probably be developed into sections, though they say they are ‘‘open to suggestions if anyone has a bright idea’’.
‘‘We’ve known about the site for years and years. When it became available again we thought it’d be a good project. We’re both in the transport game so we understand machinery and logistics. Time will tell if it’s a good investment,’’ Russell said.
‘‘It’s less than we thought it’d go for, but in reality the buying of it is the small part. It’s the next bit that’s the big bit.’’
He estimated it could take as little as three months to clear the site.
Gary, who recalled being taken to visit a relative at the hospital when he was just five, said, ‘‘we were always hanging around the nurses’ home when we were young’’.
Central Hawke’s Bay District Council chief executive officer John Freeman said any buyer who came up with an approved business plan for the site would be allowed to dump up to 1000 tonnes of waste at the local landfill, would be exempt from rate rises for two years, and would not have to pay development contributions until sections were sold or building consents applied for.
The council was in the process of declaring the buildings dangerous and insanitary, meaning any new owner would need to start clearing the fire-damaged structures and repair or demolish the other buildings within two years.
Those at the auction were provided with a quote from a Hastings demolition company of $400,000 plus GST to clear the site.
When Bieniowski bought the site on Trade Me he knew the main building had been gutted by fire in 2010, and that vandals had trashed much of it, but said he had not been prepared for just how bad it was.
He bought it from Auckland developer Jason Dempsey, who paid $200,000 for the site when the hospital closed in 1999.