Church puts Herne Bay property up for sale

By ANNE GIBSON

The Catholic Church is selling the former St Vincent's Home of Compassion, one of its larger Auckland holdings.

The property, which Quotable Value has assessed as worth at least $4 million, is nearly a hectare of residentially zoned flat land in Herne Bay divided into two titles at 26 Hukanui Crescent and one title at 83 Kelmarna Ave.

Auckland diocese general manager Kerry Coleman says the Church no longer needs the real estate and the sale is part of a rationalisation process.

"We have a lot of other pastoral activities we need to invest in, so this is part of a strategic review of all our holdings."

The Church is also selling surplus land on Te Irirangi Drive arterial road between Manukau City and Botany Downs town centre, as well as a holding at Dairy Flat north of Auckland.

Coleman said the 9764sq m Herne Bay land would be attractive to residential developers and was capable of taking at least 26 units with discretionary rights to build more than 30.

Agent John Davies, a commercial broker with Barfoot & Thompson, said he had sent out numerous information sheets on the property as a result of a marketing campaign. Tenders close on December 3.

The property has a 1900sq m masonry building and a single-level 1920s bungalow. It was used as a boarding house, offices, children's home, dormitories and chapel, but has been leased in past few years to the Herne Bay Early Childhood Centre.

The Sisters of Compassion moved into the main building in 1939 where they operated a home for unmarried mothers and a maternity unit. They used it as a base for district nursing and social services and left at the end of November 1986, when the Home of Compassion closed.

The diocese bought the property for "new forms of social work", according to the archive at Pompallier Centre in Ponsonby. In the 1990s, the Catholic family and social services movement shifted into the building.