One of New Zealand’s most iconic buildings – the Cardrona Hotel – is on the market for the first time in more than a decade. Ryan Bridge speaks to co-owner Kade Thornton.
The sale of the 162-year-old Cardrona Hotel near Wānaka could set this year’s record as New Zealand’s most viewed for-sale property on Trade Me, according to a chief there.
Gavin Lloyd, property sales director of the listing business, said: “This looks set to make a Trade Me Property record thisyear after just a few days on site.”
This year's most popular Trade Me real estate listing: sale of 33 Arney Crescent in Remuera, owned by Diane Foreman and Paul Henry.
A forest house in Auckland’s Waitakere Ranges in Auckland was the second most popular this year.
OneRoof editor Owen Vaughan said that the latest OneRoof figures suggested home-buyers on the site were concerned with price - and celebrities.
“The most viewed listing in the last 28 days by a country mile was a former rental home in Wellington that was being sold at a $1 reserve. The three-bedroom property on Bank Road, in Northland, was too much of a hassle for the vendor, who decided to sell at any price,” Vaughan said.
The unusual Wellington auction saw 22 registered bidders battle it out. The property ended up selling for $312,000, with Ray White listing agent Matt Ross telling OneRoof the result was phenomenal.
“We had over 300 enquiries or more just through OneRoof.”
Also attracting a huge amount of buyer interest, Vaughan said, was Parihoa Estate.
“The multi-million-dollar West Auckland estate is where Brad Pitt stayed while filming the action thriller Heart of the Beast in Auckland. It also hosted the Great Kiwi Bake Off and the wedding of Hits host Matty Mclean and his real estate agent husband Ryan Teece.”
Parihoa Estate is currently on the market for sale with an RV of $14 million. Brad Pitt stayed at the property while filming the action thriller Heart of the Beast in Auckland.
No estate agents for Cardrona Hotel
One of the hotel’s owners, Cade Thornton, wants offers by next month.
A statement last week said Cade and Alexis Thornton, and James and Fleur Jenneson, have owned the hotel since 2013.
Offers must be in by August 14 but no real estate agents are involved. Instead, Thornton is asking that people contact him directly.
“We now employ 40 to 50 staff, the hotel averages 84% occupancy annually, and it’s often fully booked,” Cade Thornton said.
Outside the Cardrona Hotel. Photo / George Heard
Only the hotel’s facade is heritage-listed, not the entire building.
The listing by Heritage NZ Pouhere Taonga said the false front on the building at 2312 Cardrona Valley Rd was built to conceal a small corrugated iron-clad building.
The hotel was one of the social centres for the gold mining town in the 1800s.
The small single-storey weatherboard building 24km southwest of Wānaka has in more recent years been developed into a large complex, with accommodation, dining room and bar, the heritage listing said.
“Cardrona Hotel’s false front tells the story of the hotel’s nineteenth-century origins, now concealing the modern premises built behind,” the listing said.
The false front was a significant remnant of the gold fields’ architecture.
It recalls the American parallel of gold rush frontier towns, which had a similar development pattern to the rushes in Central Otago.
The building front was essentially the sign for the business.
Commercial false fronts represented a hope for future success and settlement, the assertion of an urban environment in an isolated and harsh environment.
Anne Gibson has been the Herald‘s property editor for 25 years, written books and covered property extensively here and overseas.
