Theatre building, land sells for $11.6m
The Court Theatre building could be transformed into a new shopping attraction like The Tannery once the company moves to a new home in central Christchurch.
The theatre building and its five-acre site in Addington were sold to a development company in July for $11.6 million.
The Court Theatre leases the building and is preparing to build a new $36m home in central Christchurch.
Walsall Street Developments director Nick Ward said it bought the site as a long-term investment.
‘‘A five-acre site that close to town seemed like a pretty good long-term hold,’’ he said. ‘‘It is a nice up-and-coming suburb in Christchurch, with all the new housing going up in there.’’
He said one idea was to turn the Court Theatre building, which is a former grain store, into a shopping attraction similar to the popular Tannery boutique retail centre in Woolston.
‘‘It would be great. The building lends itself to that and is fully strengthened and all done up, so we thought we might utilise that.’’
The rest of the site could be developed for commercial space, new housing or even a retirement village, he said.
The site and building was formerly owned by Marachi Ltd, which bought the site in 1992 for $1.1m. Marachi has six directors, five of whom are based in Malaysia.
Ward said he was happy to work with Court Theatre until it moved into its new building.
Court Theatre chief executive Barbara George said the sale did not affect its lease of the building.
The theatre is working with Christchurch City Council to build a new home on the corner of Gloucester and Colombo streets in the central city.
In April, the council said there was no confirmed date for when construction would be completed and the new theatre would open. Last year, the opening date shifted from September 2023 to the first half of 2024.
The new theatre will include a 360-seat main auditorium and a 130-seat studio theatre.