Plans to turn Wellington’s St Gerard’s Monastery into a hotel are proving too difficult. Wellington developer has shelved the project following the hotel chain asking for a significant addition to the building that seemed near impossible.
“They wanted to get 200 plus rooms, and the building itself will only take 40,” explained property developer Richard Burrell. “So they wanted another 150 rooms built at the top of Hawker St. It looked like to me like working your way through five years of resource consent approvals. It was just too hard.”
Burrell has been conversing with an international chain to buy the building once $20 million worth of earthquake strengthening and renovation work was completed. Now the 115-year-old building is back on the market, its price around $7 million.
“We would have liked to have done it, but I think there is now quite a bit of interest, and we’ll find out over the next six weeks [if there’s a buyer].”
Burrell is the second developer to step away from the plans. In October, developer Maurice Clark abandoned plans to convert the building into a public facility like a university building.
It was yellow stickered after the 2011 Kaikoura earthquakes and currently sits at about 25 percent of code. The building was opened to Wellingtonians in 2018 for Wellington Heritage Week, where more than 1500 visitors passed through its doors.
St Gerard’s rests on a 2433 m2 section with sweeping views of the harbour and city. It was built in the Gothic revival style for the Redemptorist Catholic order, featuring stained glass in the chapel, native timbers, tracery windows and a small chapel. The chapel and monastery were dedicated to the Italian saint Gerard Majella.
St Gerards is listed with James Copeland for Tommy’s real estate, and viewings are by appointment only. Tenders must be in by 16 March.
