On-site at the former Hinepare Nurses Hostel on Hospital Hill, Napier, boarded-up and condemned as an earthquake risk in 2012. Photo / Paul Taylor
On-site at the former Hinepare Nurses Hostel on Hospital Hill, Napier, boarded-up and condemned as an earthquake risk in 2012. Photo / Paul Taylor
Former Napier Hospital nurses home Hinepare could be demolished by early next year, but the future of the site remains up in the air.
The knockdown plan, more than 20 years after the four-storey Hospital Hill landmark closed and eight years since days as boarding accommodation ended with condemnation asan earthquake risk, is proposed by caretaker owners and Government agency Land Information New Zealand.
Opened in 1954, the building's use as a nurses home, overlooking Napier Terrace and the city of Napier to the south and Ahuriri to the north, ended in 1998 amid the closure of Napier Hospital.
On-site at the former Hinepare Nurses Hostel on Hospital Hill, Napier, boarded-up and condemned as an earthquake risk in 2012. Photo / Paul Taylor
It has since been land banked for possible use in Treaty settlement processes related to the Napier inner harbour (Te Whanganui a Orotu) and wider Ahuriri hapu claims.
Following its closure it was reopened by Napier couple Bruce and Jan Raitt as the Hinepare Accommodation Centre, who held a lease to 2023 but they were stunned when immediate vacation was ordered in 2012 after the building's classification as an earthquake risk.
With the Treaty settlement process still incomplete, a new assessment was done last year, finding the building 25-times more a danger to life than a new building.
Most of the windows in the building have been smashed and graffiti artists have taken over. Photo / Paul Taylor
A multi-storey nurses home collapsed in the 1931 Hawke's Bay Earthquake, less than five years after being built, with reports later citing poor construction for its demise.
LINZ manager land and property Matt Bradley says no date is being set for demolition, with Napier City Council saying it is yet to receive a building/demolition consent application.
No information was available from LINZ late Tuesday afternoon as to how quickly demolition could take place if it is approved, although it has been reported the work could start this year.
