The top of the Spanish Mission frontage of the Gaiety Theatre in Napier, being renovated and saving the balcony overlooking Dickens St. Photo / Doug Laing.
The top of the Spanish Mission frontage of the Gaiety Theatre in Napier, being renovated and saving the balcony overlooking Dickens St. Photo / Doug Laing.
A century-old Napier building with a tonne of nostalgia between the walls has been saved from possible demolition in a makeover expected to be completed next year.
The Gaiety Theatre building in Dickens St was built in 1912, replacing a building destroyed by fire the previous year.
The frontage collapsedin the 1931 Hawke’s Bay Earthquake, but with the side and rear wall remaining in place, the renovated building survived to play a key part in the emergence of a new era of Napier nightlife.
Liquor-licensing relaxation, including later hours and the lowering of the drinking age, saw the development of big bigger bars and nightclubs, with the Gaiety becoming home of nightclubs the Silver Spade and Bananas in the disco and DJs era of the 1970s and 1980s.
The Gaiety Theatre in the days after the Hawke's Bay Earthquake on February 3, 1931. Photo / Supplied.
Sold in 2017, the building was most-recently known for nine years as the home of model railway attraction Trainworld, which closed in 2021, and on the ground floor shopfronts including Napier’s first Anatolia restaurant and The Kiwi Mancave, which closed in January 2024.
The new owners decided against redevelopment and last year the building was bought, vacant, by developer Mike Walker and three partners.
An image of the proposed rear entrance to the Gaiety Theatre office development. Photo / Supplied.
Now, with interior work under way, plans for a new era have been revealed by developer Mike Walker Management, which also remodelled the adjacent former Hawke’s Bay Motor Co building and Civic Plaza Dickens St gateway as Willis House four years ago.
Walker said the new development required a comprehensive heritage report, and restrengthening throughout.
The Spanish Mission-styled street frontage, which was rebuilt after the earthquake, is being strengthened and retained, including its balcony of three arched doorways overlooking Dickens St.
Napier developer Mike Walker at the rear of the 114-year-old Gaiety Theatre building now being renovated to create quality office space and a new parking area. Photo / Doug Laing.
The street-front retail space will be renovated in the Gaiety Theatre, with ground-floor and upstairs offices added in the rest of the building remaining after demolition of the most decrepit area at the rear, where the building will open onto what will be effectively an extension of the existing Willis House car park.
Walker described the office plans as “a bit of a punt”, but, while the hunt is on for tenants to move in when the major part of a $2 million makeover is complete, there is a demand for “quality offices” of the type proposed in keeping with the requirements of occupants, and with parking provided.
Doug Laing has been a journalist for 53 years, starting at the Central Hawke’s Bay Press in 1973, and after stints in Masterton, Napier, Auckland and Wellington returned to Hawke’s Bay with the Daily Telegraph in Napier in 1987, and, working through the 1999 merger that created Hawke’s Bay Today, has covered most aspects of news in the region.
