Old boiler house could offer site for homes or business premises
One of the last remaining buildings in a 19th-century brewery complex is for sale and could be converted into homes or a new business premises.
The building, the old boiler house from Wards brewery in central Christchurch, is owned by cafe chain Coffee Culture. The company had intended to turn it into a roastery and head office but changed its plans.
Other remaining buildings from the old brewery are in use as Pomeroy’s pub and Little Pom’s cafe facing Kilmore St.
Wards was the first brewery in Christchurch and occupied the property from about 1860.
Other buildings on the site – including the former Mr Pickwicks antique store, the old Crichton Cobbers youth club and the old brewery kiln – were demolished after the earthquakes.
Recently the $5 million Flow Wellbeing centre was built on some of the cleared land facing Fitzgerald Ave.
The old boiler house is three storeys high and built of brick and concrete.
Built at an unknown date between the establishment of the brewery and 1910, it is listed in the city’s district plan as a significant building.
‘‘The former boiler house of Ward’s brewery has architectural and aesthetic significance as a remaining part of a significant group of early brick industrial buildings in Christchurch,’’ the district plan says. The sale includes the remains of the old brewing tower alongside, after the upper levels of the five-storey tower were demolished, as well as the vacant former Crichton Cobbers site.
Coffee Culture, through its company Parchment Property, is now seeking offers by a September deadline.
Marketing agent Colliers is advertising the old boiler house as having ‘‘both commercial and residential possibilities’’.