Comedy bar’s fate no joke
Popular comedy club the Fringe Bar will have to find a new home, after the building’s body corporate agreed to an undisclosed settlement with Wellington City Council to demolish the building.
The demolition notice and settlement follows a 13-year battle in the High Court.
The Fringe Bar, which has hosted New Zealand comedians from Flight of The Conchords to Raybon Kan and Cori Gonzalez-Macuer, has occupied the ground floor of the heritage building at 30 Allen St since 2013. The club had leased the space until 2032.
Wellington City Council’s notice means the club has to move out within the next two years but it could be forced out as soon as the sale goes through.
The building’s body corporate unanimously agreed to sell the combined property, as a ‘‘vacant possession’’, meaning all tenants will have to move out, unless the new owner agrees to honour their leases until the demolition notice comes into effect in June 2020.
The Fringe Bar owner Liz Christie said she found out 10 days ago Wellington City Council had decided the building would ‘‘cost too much to fix’’.
The body corporate’s claim against Wellington City Council, ISP Engineering, and MacRitchie Bros, who built the apartments in the late 1990s, was heard in the High Court in June 2017 but settled out of court a year later.
Court documents estimated the cost of fixing the structural issues would be $5.7 million and the cost of demolishing and replacing the building would be about $12.8m.
But body corporate president Glen Sharah said the cost of fixing the building would have been ‘‘considerably more’’ than $5.7m.
Neither Sharah nor the city council would comment on the amount the body corporate was awarded when settlement papers were signed on June 14.
Sharah said the 13-year process had left him feeling drained. ‘‘We were reasonably happy with the settlement but . . . it’s fair to say most people are facing losses.’’
Christie said she had been ‘‘left in the dark’’ about just how bad the state of the building was.
When they had moved into the site in 2013, she knew it had been yellowstickered but just thought that meant the building would need strengthening by 2027 and not demolished.
Christie said there were bad leaks in the ceiling, and there was no insulation, which meant the apartment directly above the club vibrated so much during shows they had to lease it as well.
The property had a rateable value of $850,000 in September 2015, according to QV.
Bayleys Wellington is marketing the property for tender as a ‘‘development opportunity’’.
Bayleys salesman Mark Walker said the site had an inherent value given its location close to the Courtenay Place hospitality precinct.
The property is being sold by tender, closing at 4pm on September 19.