Heretaunga House to be pulled down while future opportunities identified
Heretaunga House on the corner of Lyndon Rd and Warren Street is to be pulled down, with the potential for a temporary carpark to be installed while other options for the site are explored.
Owned by Hastings District Council, and formerly occupied by council staff and other tenanted offices, the three-storey building was vacated in June last year after seismic assessments found it did not meet the New Building Standard for earthquake strength.
An initial assessment found it to have a seismic performance of less than 34 per cent of the New Building Standard, and an additional peer review gave a more precise assessment of 15 per cent of the New
Building Standard.
Hastings district councillors this week considered the options for the building, including the work and costs involved to strengthen it – estimated to be anywhere from $16m to $24m dependent on the scale of the remediation.
The other option was to deconstruct the building and set up a temporary carpark, estimated to cost between $1m and $1.3m.
Council will now seek urban design advice to explore future opportunities for the development of the site.
Hastings mayor Sandra Hazlehurst said it was important that action was taken with the site.
“We have a huge opportunity here in terms of our revitalisation plan for the city centre – it’s 3000 square metres of land that could be significant for the likes of inner-city living, office space, and car parking – it’s a potential showcase for our CBD revitalisation.”
Council officers will now start the process of finding qualified and experienced demolition contractors to take the building down, with a view to having as much of the building as possible repurposed or recycled.
They will also come back to council in the first quarter of next year with urban design opportunities for future development of the site.
