Developer working on vision for inner city homes
repurposing it to inner city apartments — to see if it could be done.
“That was six months ago and it’s taken us that long to get to this stage to find out whether it can be done or it can’t be done — pleased to say it can.”
The building has been home to the Whanganui Chronicle and before that housed New Zealand Railways.
He said they had 12 months to make the project a reality and were now halfway. There were still some obstacles to overcome.
According to the district plan, residential properties are not allowed on the ground floor.
The access to it is still a reserve and not a dedicated road and that had to be sorted out before they applied for resource consent.
Hay said there were also concerns about the building’s earthquake strength and engineers were working through that.
The council had been very helpful and had a team working to get the project across the line, Hay said.
Hay’s hope is to create a market for inner city living in Whanganui using other heritage buildings.
“A very high percentage of New Zealand’s heritage buildings are located in Whanganui. You’ve got to think about a use for them otherwise they’re going to sit vacant, people are going to get annoyed and they’re going to fall to bits.
“Here’s an opportunity to create a market for inner city housing and if that’s successful it can sort of duplicate itself into other vacant buildings around town.”
Hay has also bought the old printing press building and is considering putting a boutique hotel in the space where the building stands but that is not an immediate pursuit.
Hay said he’d know the cost of the apartments at the end of this week.
“It’s not social housing, but hopefully it will be an affordable option for people who want a brand new apartment in downtown Whanganui.”
He said they would be ideal for single people or the 50-plus age group. “I think it’s just a natural progression. Seattle for instance, when I was there it was as flat as a pancake. You could buy brand new apartments for $100,000. Portland was as dead as can be. Even major cities go through that.
“You can’t have all the lovely cafes and bars and shops if there’s nowhere for people to live. A lot of people now choose to be single longer so if we create affordable space for them in Whanganui it will just liven the whole town up.
“If you want to employ people in Queenstown at the moment they’ve got to drive 30km to get somewhere to stay,” he said. “We have that opportunity of creating living spaces for people that want to live and work in the city and I think that’s a real opportunity.”