Theatre’s seismic report not the final curtain
A poor seismic report on a prominent theatre building has created a development opportunity in Wairarapa.
The home of Greytown Little Theatre in Greytown’s Main St is up for sale. The building has been owned and occupied by the theatre group since 1996.
Gollins Commercial principal Chris Gollins said engineers found the building to be just 15 per cent of the national building standard.
The theatre group was planning to relocate to a councilowned site in West St, so it was ‘‘in no way the final curtain’’, Gollins said.
Despite being New Zealand’s leading town for economic growth last year, Greytown is a ‘‘notoriously difficult location for developers’’, with few larger properties ever being sold, he said.
The sale of the 516-squaremetre building, which sits on a 1048sqm site, could be demolished and redeveloped, or strengthened, he said, though there were a number of factors that favoured retaining the building.
‘‘If it’s retained, the present parking provided will be deemed to comply and the building, as is, largely meets the Heritage Precinct guidelines, [but] that’s not to say the guidelines make new construction difficult,’’ Gollins said.
‘‘The very successful ‘Hub’ development at 74 Main St, built in 2015, showed what’s possible.
‘‘And the fact the Little Theatre site is very much a part of the ‘golden half-mile’ of Greytown gives it a head start in potential.’’
Greytown Little Theatre chairman John Gilberthorpe said fundraising for the group’s new purpose-built theatre was well under way.
‘‘Our 2018 programme will continue in ‘pop-up’ venues as we deliver new productions and raising the capital we need for our purpose-built future home.’’