Brian Rudman: Delay can only be good for historic building

The six month ban on demolishing the historic Jean Batten Building in Shortland St will be reviewed on Friday by the board of the Historic Places Trust.

Hopefully, despite the submissions of Australian owner Bank of New Zealand, the trustees will spring no surprises and will leave the temporary protection in place for the remaining four and a half months of its duration. After all, in a case like this, every day of delay provides valuable time in which to persuade and cajole the bankers as to their obligations as good corporate citizens of downtown Auckland.

It has to be said that progress has been glacial since the bank and Mayor Dick Hubbard pledged on March 10 to work together to seek ways of preserving the classic office building. In a gentlemen's pact, BNZ agreed not to demolish it and to revisit their plans to build a new headquarters on the site, and the city, for its part promised it "would suspend consideration of heritage protection" for the building, while the urban design panel considered the site and came up with new suggestions.

No time limit was put on this moratorium and we were asked to have faith in the process. It was a big ask, particularly when a month later the city went to the Environment Court seeking a declaration that the bank's disputed demolition permit was valid.

This decision took four months, but eventually the court ruled the permit was indeed valid and the bankers could, if they desired, power up the bulldozers. That ruling was too much for the trust, which had, for some months, been lurking nervously on the sidelines. On August 5, the day after the demolition permit was found valid, the trust couldn't take the strain any longer and issued an interim registration of the building, automatically protecting it from destruction for six months. This provided it time to fully research and analyse whether to proceed with listing it as a historic building. It also gave it a chance to work with the bankers and the council in trying to seek ways to preserve the building.

On Friday, the BNZ's submissions on the interim registration will be considered by the trustees. No one is revealing the content of these submissions, but I'm guessing the bankers are not exactly happy with the demolition freeze.

Meantime, the joint moratorium between the bank and city council drags on and the gentlemen's agreement seems to be holding. Neither side is saying boo publicly, but it does appear the BNZ, worried about the public backlash demolition would spark off, has been canvassing various alternatives, from linking the existing building with a new one alongside, to moving to another site. Word is that every commercial real estate agent in Auckland has been knocking on the bank's door with the perfect alternative site.

One alternative that springs to mind is to relocate to the Britomart historic precinct behind the old chief post office, being redeveloped for Auckland City by Multiplex, the same developer that is partnering BNZ on the Jean Batten site.

It has been encouraging that the bankers have been willing to reconsider their earlier plans to demolish and to continue dialogue with the council.

But what happens if all the consultation eventually fails and they decide to go ahead and demolish anyway.

It's in this nightmare scenario that Mayor Hubbard and his team seem to be short of a fall-back plan.

Accusations of betrayal as the bulldozers move in is all they'll be left with.

It was a risk that at least the trust was not prepared to take.

The interim registration at least provides another four and a half months reprieve - that's if Friday's meeting of the trustees remains staunch.

Unfortunately, because of the terms of the March deal with BNZ, Auckland City can't take the same path as the trust and belatedly award the heritage protection it deserves.

As we wait, you also have to wonder how a building that the trust researchers now list as historically, architecturally and aesthetically "significant," somehow got overlooked until now.