Old hospital site mooted for housing

One of central Christchurch’s largest swathes of vacant land could become social or affordable housing.

The Christchurch Women’s Hospital site, at 885 Colombo St, has been empty and unused since the hospital was demolished in 2009.

The land, about the size of two rugby fields, is owned by the Canterbury District Health Board and has a rateable value of nearly $11 million.

New emails, released to The Press under the Official Information Act, show the Ministry of Housing and Urban Development has been talking with the health board about buying the land for social or affordable housing since July last year.

As of last month, the ministry was procuring consultants for on-site due diligence, the documents show. But no offer has formally been made.

The emails show the housing ministry has also spoken with Nga¯ i Tahu, the South Island’s main iwi, about a potential partnership on the land.

Nga¯ i Tahu and the ministry were unable to comment before deadline.

Dr Rob Ojala, the executive director of facilities at the Canterbury DHB, said the ministry ‘‘expressed potential interest’’ in the site but it was not yet ‘‘formal interest’’.

The Canterbury DHB had provided a 2015 ground condition report to the ministry and its staff would be allowed on site to conduct due diligence, Ojala said.

Revelation of the ministry’s interest comes as the Government moves to make housing more affordable and the social housing register remains at a record high. In January, it hit 22,803, a fourfold increase since Labour was elected in 2017.

The former hospital site is among vacant sites identified by the Christchurch City Council, which has signalled a long-term intention to crack down on undeveloped vacant land.

In 2019, health board member and city councillor Aaron Keown warned that the site risked becoming a ‘‘roadblock’’ to central city progress.

Yesterday, he said he supported a conversation about putting housing there, but making it exclusively social and affordable housing could lead to ‘‘ghetto-isation’’.

‘‘You get negative outcomes when you put too much affordable and social housing together,’’ he said. ‘‘You should always spread through society a variation of people.’’

Private developer Matthew Horncastle previously said he would love to buy the site and predicted 100 to 150 dwellings could be built on it.

The now-released emails show talks between the DHB and the housing ministry began in July last year.

At the time, Benjamin Speedy, a ministry official, said the site could be suitable for the Land for Housing programme, which has a goal of identifying suitable land for housing development ‘‘with a particular focus on public and/or affordable housing’’.

In August, Brad Cabell, the DHB’s programme director for construction and property, told Speedy there was interest in ‘‘the potential repurposing’’ of the old hospital site.

In November, Speedy informed the health board that the ministry had found the old hospital site was suitable for their programme.

In February, an email sent by the DHB’s corporate solicitor, Tim Lester, mentioned that Nga¯i Tahu and the ministry had discussed ‘‘a potential partnership’’ for the site.

This was the only email that mentioned the potential partnership. The identity of the person at Nga¯i Tahu who received the email has been redacted for privacy reasons.

In March this year, Speedy said the ministry was progressing with the procurement of consultants to conduct the on-site due diligence.