"As one of Palmerston North's notable buildings and a landmark on The Square, it is well worth the care and management it deserves as a historic place."
The Edwardian-era building was the city's post office until the mid-1980s. From the 1990s until the mid-2010s it became a popular nightspot, including the long-running bar High Flyers.
But it has been empty since 2017, and the crumbling structure has been subject to dangerous building notices.
The city council has also issued "notices to fix" for problems including broken windows on the street front. All the building's dozens of windows are broken or boarded up.
Owners of heritage-listed buildings such as High Flyers are responsible for their maintenance but, aside from council-issued notices for specific problems, little can be done to force them to upgrade such structures.
A Heritage NZ spokeswoman said from photos it looked like most of the building was in a similar condition to before the fire.
The building is owned by Palmerston Post Ltd, whose director and major shareholder is Alan Moyes, of Auckland. He could not be reached on Monday and has previously declined to comment.
Over the past decade, developers have planned to use the building as a hotel, conference venue, inter-city bus stop and for retail, but nothing has got off the ground.
RNZ understands Palmerston Post has this year been in negotiations to sell the building.
The 4032sq m section has a land value of $2.83 million and a capital value of $2.87m.
• Jimmy Ellingham is RNZ's Manawatū reporter.
