KEY POINTS:
Auckland health officials want to reactivate their plan to demolish a century-old building in Greenlane to make way for a carpark, after no one showed interest in paying for its $4 million upgrading.
Auckland Mayor John Banks is disappointed that the so-called Building 5 now seems doomed.
He said yesterday it was not for Auckland ratepayers to finance the structural modernising of the two-storey brick-and-plaster building, and he asserted that the taxpayer-funded Auckland District Health Board had a moral obligation to preserve it.
Last March the health board, under pressure from heritage activists and elected members of the Auckland City and Regional councils, undertook to canvass commercial interest in upgrading the building and leasing it on a peppercorn rental.
Upgrading has been estimated at $4 million, while a new building would cost 10 to 15 per cent less - and fit-out would add a further $1 million.
Only five organisations made proposals in response to the board's requests, three of them construction companies and one an antique dealer who suggested a pottery museum. The fifth, the NZ World War I Memorial Trust, proposed a memorial centre and wanted the board to contribute $2 million for the upgrading.
"The public process has illustrated that there is no genuine interest in refurbishing the property in exchange for the peppercorn lease offered," government advisers told the health board. The board says because of this it is "now unlikely that Building 5 will be retained".
It will vote today on a management recommendation to reactivate its defence in the Environment Court of the resource consent, granted by city council commissioners, to demolish the building. A hearing of the appeal by heritage campaigner Helen Geary was put off to allow investigation of retaining Building 5.
In the meantime, the site goes back before council commissioners on February 19 and 20. They will hear arguments on the bid for its addition to the district plan's list of heritage buildings - a change advocated by councillors, against the advice of their officers.
Mr Banks blamed the economic downturn for the failure to attract anyone interested in financing the upgrading. He said the health board should wait, because someone would eventually take on the project.
The health board expects to undertake a major expansion of services by 2015, including at the Greenlane Clinical Centre. It says the Greenlane Rd frontage, including the land under Building 5, "would be suitable for support buildings in future".
Chairman Pat Snedden declined to be interviewed yesterday, ahead of today's meeting, but has previously said the board strives "to meet our obligations to be a good corporate citizen and act in the public good".
THE ISSUE
* Building 5 is a two-storey brick-and-plaster structure on Auckland District Health Board's Greenlane site.
* Dates from 1907, when it was a male infirmary ward.
* Adjacent to the 1890 Costley Block, which the board is committed to preserving.
* Board wants to demolish Building 5 to make way for a carpark and possibly future support facilities.
