The name of the ex-pat buyer and the exact price the iconic Wellington property was sold for are confidential, says listing agent James Copeland, who was charged with selling St Gerard's.

Settlement on the property is at the end of June.

The category one, heritage-listed church and monastery building, which had been listed on OneRoof with a declared RV of $16.9 million, was snapped up within a month of hitting the market.

In a Facebook post confirming the sale, Copeland said: "It has been an incredible honour to represent the owners for this sale and a massive congratulations to the new owners who will now become part of Wellington's history."

The buildings had sold in 1990 for $540,000 to the Institute for World Evangelisation - ICPE Mission, which used them as a retreat and training centre for missionaries.

The buildings were closed almost two years ago after the organisation failed to raise enough funds to carry out the required earthquake-strengthening work.

They are rated just 25 percent of the building standard and need significant work to bring them up to current standards.

St Gerard's church was built in 1908 and the monastery several decades later in 1932. Both were designed by the city's most well-known architects, John Swan and Frederick de Jersey Clere.

The northern part of the building has impressive views out to Oriental Bay and over the harbour, while the western side looks out to the city's well-known landmarks such as Clyde Quay, the waterfront, CBD, stadium and Victoria University.

The buildings sit on 2,433sqm of the city's most prime real estate.

Family connection

In a curious twist of fate, the estate agent James Copeland said he once lived for a year at St Gerard's; his parents ran the first missionary school there.

"I was at the school with them. I wasn't a participant at the school, but I lived there for a year," he said.

His father, former MP Gordon Copeland, was later St Gerard's Maintenance and Restoration Trust chairman when the owners were presented with a $10 million earthquake strengthening bill.

"Mum and Dad had their 25th, 40th and 50th wedding anniversaries there. We had Dad's funeral there four years ago," he said.

"So, it's a very, very important building for our family spiritually and as a kind of legacy building, I suppose, for Dad and all the work that he did for the Catholic Church and all the work that he did for the ICPE."

Source

• Facebook
• OneRoof
• NZ Catholic
• Wikipedia
• Correction: The initial version of this article said Gordon Copeland served two terms as a Cabinet Minister. It has been corrected to say he was an MP.

Developer Richard Burrell says the work needed to renovate the impressive brick building for an international hotel chain is just "too hard".

Burrell had been in talks with the hotel chain to buy the building once about $20 million worth of earthquake strengthening and renovation work was complete.

He says he decided to drop the project when the chain wanted a "significant" addition to the building.

"They wanted to get 200 plus rooms and the building itself will take only 40," says 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."

The 115-year-old landmark building is now back on the market to be sold by tender. It's thought the guide price is about $7m.

Burrell says he believes the hotel chain is now talking to other developers in the city.

"We would have liked to have done it, we didn't do 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)."

It's thought Burrell had offered $5 million for the earthquake-prone, heritage-listed building.

He is the second developer to step away from plans to rescue the building and convert it for modern use.

Last October, Wellington building developer Maurice Clark dropped plans to convert the building into a public facility.

About St Gerard's

Built in the Gothic revival style for the Catholic Redemptorist order, the 115-year-old buildings are packed with significant architectural features. These include stained-glass in the chapel, native timbers throughout, and a pair of tracery windows in the library and small chapel, with views over the harbour.

The monastery and chapel were the first in the world to be dedicated to the Italian saint Gerard Majella.

In 1995, the International Catholic Programme of Evangelisation (ICPE), a missionary school, bought the buildings to use as accommodation and teaching space for its international congregation.

It was yellow-stickered after the 2011 Kaikoura earthquake, and sits at about 25% of code. The ICPE has until 2027 to complete strengthening.

The building was opened for 2018 Wellington Heritage Week and saw more than 1500 visitors during the weekend.

The last mass in the chapel was held in 2021. The chapel has since been deconsecrated.

Information for buyers

St Gerard's sits on a 2433m² section of some of the capital's most coveted real estate. It has commanding views of the harbour and city. It is classified as a Heritage New Zealand Category 1-listed building.

It has an RV of $16.9m, $16.4m of which is for the land alone.

The listing for St Gerard's is with James Copeland for Tommy's real estate. Viewings are by appointment only, and tenders must by in 16 March (it will not be sold prior).

Source

• Stuff

Pannett holds the Council's heritage building resilience portfolio.

She said a special grant was one option the council had to offer some support, but ultimately the monastery may need to downsize.

She said the parish is going to have to make some tough calls about what it does with the buildings.

"It's a very painful process [relinquishing heritage buildings], but the buildings do need to be safe."

The monastery and church buildings are rated at 25 percent of the New Building Standard (NBS), and its owners have until 2027 to get them strengthened.

The buildings are owned by the International Catholic Programme of Evangelisation (IPCE).

St Gerard's is not the only catholic church in Wellington that has had to contend with earthquake strengthening costs.

The St Mary of the Angels Church on Boulcott St reopened in 2017 after a $9.3m upgrade.

Work will begin this month at Cathedral of the Sacred Heart in Thorndon.

The Cathedral parish received a one-off 'out of round' contribution from the Council's Built Heritage Incentive Fund to help ensure the $3.3 million strengthening works proceeded.

Pannett says the Cathedral is one of only seven basilicas in New Zealand.

She said it is important that the Council is able to invest in important projects around the city, even in tough times.

"This is a well-thought-out project. Every building that comes off our quake-prone building list makes the city safer."

Source

• stuff.co.nz
• mcshwellington.org
• Image: stuff.co.nz

The buildings are rated at 25 per cent of the New Building Standard (NBS), anything under 34 per cent is considered earthquake-prone.

IPCE have until 2027 to complete the strengthening.

They have just $42,000 sitting in a fund to get it earthquake strengthened, falling well short of the $11 million that's needed.

Already engineer and quantity surveyor reports have cost tens of thousands of dollars.

But the director of St Gerard's church and monastery Silvana Abela told the New Zealand Herald they didn't look at the situation as a "headache" and the strengthening cost was just life.

The biggest problem is the church, which could take up $8 million of the total cost.

They are pursuing several avenues to raise money, including selling the property they also own at 1 Oriental Terrace.

The sale would provide more than $1 million.

Abela said they were also looking at fundraising options and were in contact with "major donors", but said she could not disclose further details while negotiations are ongoing.

"We will continue working towards it, and I have a lot of faith that we'll manage to do it," Abela said.

Abela confirmed they have applied to Wellington City Council for an extension of five years to get the church earthquake strengthened.

The Redemptorists built St Gerard's church in 1908 and the monastery in 1932.

Two of Wellington's most well-known architects, John Swan and Frederick de Jersey Clere, designed it.

In 1988, costs associated with the buildings and their declining numbers, made the Redemptorists decide to sell the buildings.

Source

• nzherald.co.nz
• stgerards.org.nz
• Image: en.wikipedia.org

The buildings are hard to miss; the image is scored into road barriers and postcards around Wellington, and their bulk is plainly visible on the Roseneath hill overlooking Oriental Bay. Read more

It hoped to receive the results soon, and that they will prove far less strengthening work, or even none, is needed.

In the meantime the Trust has halted fundraising for strengthening work, which has reached about $100,000.

Copeland said a friend told him about a similar 1932 reinforced concrete building in Christchurch, the old High St Post Office, which survived the 6.3-magnitude February 2011 quake unscathed.

Both it and the monastery were built after the 1931 Napier earthquake with higher seismic standards.

Added to that, the monastery's concrete foundations were built on rock, and the buildings were strengthened in the 1980s when steel bracing was put in the church roof and monastery floor.

"Because of the Christchurch earthquakes and the legal liabilities faced by engineers, I think they were being super-cautious," Copeland said.

The Monastery was yellow-stickered after the original seismic engineer's report assessed the buildings as needing major strengthening to reach or exceed 34 per cent of new building standards.

The 1908 unreinforced masonry church was deemed to meet 26 per cent of the building code.

The adjoining reinforced concrete monastery, built in 1932, was assessed to be 18 per cent.

The predicted $10m strengthening bill shocked St Gerard's owners, the Institute for World Evangelisation - ICPE New Zealand, a lay missionary group, which bought St Gerard's in 1990.

Source

• stuff.co.nz
• Image: buildmagazine.org.nz

The monastery's heritage status means demolition would be very hard to achieve.

Chairman of the monastery trust and former MP Gordon Copeland said the monastery and an adjacent church were judged well below the minimum percentage of allowable earthquake standards.

"They had the church at about 26 percent and the monastery at about 18 percent," he said.

"We have always been concerned that that estimate is wrong, and that is why we need to test it with another evaluation." Continue reading

This probably had something to do with Mark Dunajtschik's proposal to give $5 million each for the restorations of St Mary of the Angels and St Gerard's Monastery.

The offer from the developer was outlined at the Environment Court in Wellington on August 19.

But it was dependent on him getting resource consent to demolish the eight-storey Harcourt's building in Lambton Quay, which is heritage listed.

Mr Dunajtschik said he had made verbal commitments about the restoration funding to former MP Gordon Copeland regarding St Gerard's and to Fr Barry Scannell, SM, of St Mary of the Angels.

He said Fr Scannell had told him his whole congregation would be praying for him.

Environment Court judge Jeff Smith said there were precedents for such offers to be picked up.

But they had to be voluntary and could not be imposed by the court, the judge said.

Wellington City Council had issued notice that the Harcourts building had to be strengthened or demolished by 2027, but when Mr Dunajtschik applied to demolish the building, he was not permitted to do so, the Dominion Post reported.

The legal saga over getting a consent has been before Wellington City Council commissioners, the Environment Court and then the High Court.

The latter ordered the case be re-heard in the Environment Court.

St Mary of the Angels was closed after earthquakes last year, as it only meets 15 to 20 per cent of the building standard in this area.

Earlier this month, the parish launched a fundraising drive to bring the heritage-listed church to 100 per cent of building code.

To begin work, the church needs $3 million, of which it has already raised $2 million.

Patrons include former prime minister Jim Bolger, former governor-general Sir Anand Satyanand, former chief District Court judge Sir David Carruthers, businessman Sir John Todd and chief ombudsman Dame Beverley Wakem.

But another $7 million is needed to complete the project.

The church had already spent $500,000 analysing the structure's weaknesses and planning its restoration, Fr Scannell said.

He said parishioners had been generous, but the fundraising appeal was to "the whole of the Catholic community, and to the city".

Sources

• Dominion Post
• Wellington scoop
• Newstalk ZB
• Stuff.co.nz
• Image: St Mary of the Angels