Old police cells may get new life as backpacker rooms

Fancy a night in the cells with the key on your side of the door and no court appearance in the morning?

That option may soon be on offer in Whangarei.

The new owners of the former Whangarei police station are considering turning the old cell block into novelty backpacker accommodation as part of a gradual refurbishment of the whole site for multiple tenancies. The block has 11 cells.

The 2582sq m property straddles Lower Cameron and Clyde Sts and includes offices, interview rooms, a mess, kitchens, garages, parking and the cell block.

Mike Elrick's Whangarei-based firm Lands & Survey has already moved into the renovated and reconfigured accommodation block (known as the barracks) with frontage on Clyde St; and lawyers Urlich McNab Kilpatrick plan to move into part of the double-storeyed administration building in Lower Cameron St this July.

The Crown sold the complex to a South Island family trust in a public tender process in December 2010.

The trust's first project was fitting out the barracks block for Lands & Survey, replacing windows, doors, toilet facilities and kitchen, and putting in a meeting room. Urlich McNab Kilpatrick is currently discussing space requirements and a renovation programme with the trust.The complex was completed in the early 1960s, a period of rapid growth for Whangarei district (the refinery, meatworks, glass factory).

Additions were completed in 1970, making it the most up-to-date police station in the country at the time. The new police station opened in February 2009.