Hastings Tudor-style villa: Developers running out of options to preserve historic building

The developers are running out of options to preserve the building, which was built in 1910 and had previous heritage value. Photo / Warren Buckland

Expressions of interest in a free Tudor-style villa in Hastings have come tumbling down, and now the building might too.

Developers TW Property want to remove the two-storey villa on 711 Southland Rd, but they have been unable to find anyone able to take it off their hands.

TW even offered a month ago to help pay up to $50,000 for the cost of the building, as that is what it would cost them to remove the house anyway, but discussions with dozens of interested parties have fallen over.

The developers are running out of options to preserve the building, which was built in 1910 and had previous heritage value, and demolition to allow a planned development to go ahead is becoming more likely.

That development will see the property subdivided to create 10 two-bedroom residential units and a shared access area on behalf of the property owner.

For those works, TW Property has applied for resource consent from Hastings District Council.

Simon Tremain, a director of TW Property, said even with the $50,000 offer, the cost of removing and renovating the building had proven to be too prohibitive to more than 30 interested parties.

“If we can’t find someone that wants to take it away and reposition it, then it will have to come down,” Tremain said.

He said they had done everything they could, and he was very disappointed they weren’t able to find someone to take the building so far.

He said they had not made a final decision to knock down the building yet and were considering approaching Hastings District Council to explore their options.

Hastings local Tony Horrocks made an online petition to stop the demolition of the building and reinstate its heritage status, which had garnered 724 signatures as of Thursday.

Horrocks said he sees the villa on his way to and from work and loves the Tudor style, and wants it to become something like a boutique bed and breakfast.

“I’ve always wanted to see something done with it. It is in a fantastic location, right opposite the raceway. It just seems like a great sort of place [to be used as] a venue or something like that.

“We are seeing less and less of these buildings around these days,” Horrocks said.

He said that since the petition couldn’t convince the owner to reinstate the heritage status of the building, the next step was making submissions opposing the resource consent for the development.

“Once it gets to the stage of approval, then we will be able to submit in opposition to the resource consent, which is where the petition comes into play.”

He said he wasn’t sure yet if the public would be allowed to make submissions on the resource consent proposal and estimated that there was only a “50-50” chance they would be able to, but he hoped that submissions against the resource consent would stop the demolition from going ahead.

A Hastings District Council (HDC) spokesperson said the resource consent application for the development, received by the council on March 14, was still being assessed and HDC was still waiting for further information.