Art Deco Trust confirms move of its Napier headquarters to Memorial Square

The Memorial Women's Rest rooms in Napier, nearly a century old, are set to become the home of the Art Deco Trust when renovations are complete. Photo / NZME

The Art Deco Trust in Napier has confirmed it will be moving its headquarters from a leased shop near Marine Parade to the near-century-old former Women’s Rest in Memorial Square.

But it won’t be happening any time soon, with trust chair and former Mayor of Napier Barbara Arnott saying it will be at least two “tourism seasons” before essential earthquake risk remedy and asbestos removal is able to be completed and the rooms prepared for the open-shop role of the trust’s day-to-day business.

Her Board’s decision, in an agreement with rest room owner Napier City Council, was announced at the trust’s annual meeting.

But it had been signalled in May when a trust proposal was put before the council, offering to take care of the work in return for a 25-year lease.

The proposal was accepted by the council, but the trust expects to remain on the current site on the corner of Tennyson and Herschell streets for at least another year.

Arnott conceded that some people are not happy about the decision to move the base from the current site, which is close to the centre of tourism activity involving the bussing of cruise ship tourists from Napier Port to the CBD.

But she says it’s a move aimed at ensuring the viability of the trust, and making sure it is well-settled into a new home long before 2031 and the marking of the 100th anniversary of the Hawke’s Bay Earthquake, with the trust activity revolving around the architecture and time period of the rebuilding of Napier.

The Women’s Rest was built in the mid-1920s as part of a memorial to the fallen of World War I, had to be repaired after the 1931 earthquake, and when closed because of an earthquake risk assessment in 2013, it had been in use as a community meeting facility for about 20 years.

Incorporated in 1987, the trust established a base in 1992 in the historic Central Fire Station Building, also in Tennyson St and near Memorial Square.

Owned at the time by now-late architect and trust supporter Guy Natusch, the old fire station remained the Art Deco Trust’s headquarters for more than 20 years.

Arnott said that with regular cruise ship visits to Napier back after a two-year hiatus during the Covid crisis, including the Coral Princess with 1950 passengers in port on Tuesday, which will be followed by seven others in the last fortnight of the year, the trust is starting to flourish again.

Cruise liners will berth in Napier at a rate of almost one a day in January, and four will visit in the week of the February 16 - 19 Art Deco Festival.

Arnott and trust general manager Jeremy Smith regard the volunteers of the organisation as its greatest asset, especially with the guided tours running at peak during the period of cruise visits.

The numbers of tours each day depend on the profile of passengers and the numbers, which range right up to the almost-5000 passengers on the Ovation of the Seas, which is next due on December 29.

“We wouldn’t be able to do most of what we do without the volunteers,” said Smith. “They do an amazing job.”