Issues around Bond Store resolved, iwi to take ownership

MOVING ON: The Inner Harbour Wharf Shed was a part of Gisborne’s port for more than 100 years. Since 2018, it has lived on Hirini St, where it was partially placed, in error, on private land. Picture by Liam Clayton.

A heritage building that the Gisborne District Council placed on private property without the landowner’s permission has a new home with a Tairāwhiti iwi.

But a council report on the building — the Inner Harbour Wharf Shed — reveals its disposal has featured a number of roadblocks and mistakes.

The shed, which is also known as the Bond Store, began its life as a crane structure at Gisborne’s port in 1887, and has been moved to multiple locations over a 100-year period.

In 2016, the council took over ownership of the old building after work at the port required its removal.

The organisation then relocated it to its present site on Hirini Street in May 2018 as a temporary measure while it decided its future.

But the building was mistakenly placed in part on private land, which drew a fresh set of challenges.

That included an ongoing dispute between the council and the landowner, with the latter refusing to pay rates on their property because their land was occupied by a council-owned building without permission or consent.

A staff report to today’s Operations Committee meetings said the council could seek a lease from the landowners, but conceded this had not been discussed with the affected party, who live in rural Auckland.

It also breached the sale and purchase agreement which stated it would remove the building from that site within six months.

Prior to its removal from the wharf, the building was assessed as having considerable historical heritage significance and given Category B status and protection under the council’s District Plan.

However, that did not eventuate because removing it from the wharf diminished its historical significance.

The building is not on the council’s asset register, is not insured, and is deemed to have no value.

In September 2019, the council ran an unsuccessful initiative to gather expressions of interest for removing and repurposing the building.

Two parties originally interested in it later pulled back, presumably because of the cost and process required for removing and reusing the structure, the report said.

The following year, a council report recommended the shed be demolished for “adaptive reuse of its parts”, which it believed struck a balance between costs and enabling some heritage value of the building to remain.

In October 2021, Ngāti Oneone agreed to take ownership for $1, but did not want to do so for two years.

At the beginning of this year, the iwi said its understanding was that it owned the building.

Today, councillors approved the staff recommendation to officially dispose of it as per the agreement made 18 months ago.

Councillor Tony Robinson said the recommendation should go further, to include the council undertaking next steps at its own cost, because the “end game” was to give Ngāti Oneone the timber at a cost of $1.

Deputy Mayor Josh Wharehinga said that was a step too far, because it would mean the council was making decisions on behalf of Ngāti Oneone.

“Councils and government organisations have made mistakes in the past of going too far in assuming what the decisions are that iwi and mana whenua are going to make,” he said.

GDC chief executive Nedine Thatcher Swann assured those present that Ngāti Oneone wouldn’t be left out of pocket by taking on responsibility for the building.

Cr Wharehinga said he was heartened that the council would bear the cost of either removal or demolition, because Māori had “a legacy of organisations wanting to give them their second-hand stuff”.

“They (Ngāti Oneone) are doing the region and this council a service by repurposing something that’s been sitting there derelict, that we’ve had no plan for, for a very long time.”