Period-piece restaurant to pay for fort

A historic North Shore Army building with sweeping views over the Hauraki Gulf is to be opened as a restaurant.

The Department of Conservation plans to lease a World War II era officers' mess hall - which is empty apart from occasional weddings and functions - at the Fort Takapuna Historic Reserve and use the rent money to restore an 1880s fort on the site.

The department will call for tenders from tomorrow to open a cafe or restaurant in the L-shaped, 1940s building, which was once the Army dining hall.

Michael Pritchard of the Tamaki Reserve Protection Trust - which lobbied successfully in the 1990s for the defence force to turn the land over to the public - said it was unlikely volunteers would be able raise enough money on their own to carry out all of the preservation and restoration work needed at the site.

The plan is to restore the neighbouring fort, which was built to defend New Zealand from the Russians, to its former glory, with replica furniture and ammunition equipment.

Students at Takapuna Grammar have been helping by building furniture from old plans.

The tender is part of a growing trend by DoC to invite companies on to its land to raise money for conservation work.