Caffe Roma building almost ready

The new owners of Christchurch’s old Caffe Roma building said last year they needed two things to save it – a council grant and the right tenants.

They got one, then the other, and restoration of the oncethreatened riverside building is almost complete.

The wrapping and the scaffolding have now come off the Oxford Tce building, built in ornate Renaissance palazzo style in the 1930s as the Midland Club, a gentlemen’s club.

Painted in a similar salmon shade to before, it will now be known as the Midland Building.

Restaurateur Francesca Voza, who runs Francesca’s Italian Kitchen in four centres, including Christchurch, has signed up to open a restaurant on the ground floor. Alongside will be Kiwi suit tailors Crane Brothers, opening its first Christchurch store.

Communications and philanthropy company Brown Bread will move their offices in upstairs.

Work was still being done inside the building and the tenants were readying their premises for a February opening.

When Club Lane Ltd paid $1.35 million for the building in 2015, it had been badly damaged by the 2010 and 2011 earthquakes and suffered through exposure to the weather, squatters and vandals. Five-year-old food remained in its cafe cabinets.

Reports from engineers hired by the previous owner, Alberto Ceccarelli, had indicated it could not be saved economically.

Club Lane Ltd was attracted by the location and the potential of its heart rimu panelling and floors, stained-glass windows, coffered ceilings, carved detailing, six hefty fireplaces, caged lift, walls up to six bricks deep and other period features.

After completing emergency weatherproofing to prevent further deterioration, the company strengthened, reroofed, rewired and relined the building. Lost features, such as parapets, were replaced in lightweight form.

Christchurch City Council ratepayers put a $869,500 heritage grant into the project.

Club Lane Ltd is owned by development company Box 112, which also own the Public Trust building on the same street and have worked on other heritage buildings in the central city.

The entire restoration was expected to cost about $2m, but Box 112 director Sam Rofe said he did not want to reveal the final figure.

‘‘Old buildings like this are inherently tricky, so they are inherently expensive,’’ he said. ‘‘We’ve had a large team of professionals working on it – they took the thing completely apart and knitted it back together with a special frame inside it.’’

Rofe said the building now fully met new building codes, which was ‘‘very much an achievement, because it was built in 1934’’. Its internal heritage features included timber detailing and scotia boards.

Rofe described the restoration of Christchurch heritage spots, such as the Midland Building, as ‘‘a kind of healing for people in the city’’ after the earthquakes.

‘‘It’s been a really rewarding project. These successes are good for all of us.’’