Grand effort to save heritage

Vic Hill is a worried man. The Whangarei businessman/farmer has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to bring the city's 112-year-old Grand Hotel up to current seismic standards only to find the rules may be about to change again following the Christchurch earthquakes.

Tough new seismic regulations are on the drawing boards and Vic Hill says there is no way he can afford to spend more than the "approaching half a million dollars" he has spent on strengthening The Grand over the past five years.

Ironically, the pending introduction of the new rules coincides with the completion of the work at The Grand.

Once so grand it hosted the Queen and Prince Philip during the royal tour of 1953-54, the heritage building is now a function centre, with public and private bars and family/tourist accommodation upstairs.

Vic Hill says the work had to be done - five years ago it was a case of biting the bullet or going out of business. He commissioned a report from a specialist seismic engineer from outside the region, who ended up with much more work at The Grand than he expected when seismic standards were toughened about three years ago. He says no matter how strong an owner's feeling for a property there is a limit to what can be poured into the fabric of the building, especially with a commercial operation like The Grand, now about to be concurrently impacted by a raft of new compliance requirements around liquor licensing, gambling, seismic strengthening and fire protection.

"At the end of the day you have to trade and you have to get a return on investment. That's a basic tenet. If you don't things start to fall over."

He says Northland is the safest place in the country in the earthquake sense and any new seismic requirements should reflect this.

"If current legislative trends continue our costs will go through the roof. It's already costing $200 a day just to keep the doors open here, counting the basics of power, insurances and water and general rates. Insurance costs have increased dramatically following the Christchurch earthquakes. I'd say we are getting to the point of ground zero. You have to ask yourself, is this building economically viable?"

Vic Hill has never uttered the word "demolition" - which would upset him badly - but looking back at his decision to pour money into what is arguably Whangarei's finest (and there are hardly any) colonial building, he says thoughtfully: "If it hadn't looked so nice ..."