By Bob Dey
The YWCA is coming back to town, after 15 years based on the outskirts in a side street near Auckland Hospital.
Its organisers hope the move will revive the YWCA's profile, help make the organisation self-funding, improve the provision of community services and give residents added security.
The move to
Fergusson House on Vincent St also completes a transition for the police, who have moved administrative functions from numerous buildings around the city to Harlech House at Otahuhu, and no longer required the old barracks which have stood alongside Auckland's central police station for 35 years.
The YWCA sold out of Queen St in 1984, one of the first long-term occupants to go as Auckland's main street was targeted by developers of the concrete and glass canyon.
Home for the young women's organisation since then has been Grafton, where it has had two old villas on Carlton Gore Rd. They will be turned over to university accommodation.
Property and hostels manager Tanya McMahon says the houses provided only 57 beds, whereas the former police barracks will allow for 149. The new premises will also provide more room for community projects such as self-defence and survival courses, and for rooms to be let out to community organisations.
The police stopped using their barracks several years ago, but had some offices there until they vacated the building altogether a year ago.
Selling the barracks gave the police $2.55 million towards the $8.5 million price of Harlech House, former IRD premises built by Argus Group 11 years ago and sold by Japanese investors for a $500,000 capital loss after they owned it for seven years.
McMahon says that before the YWCA reaches self-sufficiency, it will have a frantic fundraising campaign to pay for the refurbishment and is looking for corporate sponsors for some of its space. Canam has begun the refurbishment, costing almost as much as the sale price.
The various real estate transactions have also been a joint venture between Colin Harper and Gordon Bray at Barfoot & Thompson Commercial. Harper has worked on numerous police deals, helping them out of the leased city offices into Harlech House.
