By ANNE GIBSON
A Hobson St eyesore is about to go.
The half-built motel next to the Auckland central police station will be rebuilt by its new owner. The construction tender is about to be let.
Auckland developer David Gaze, who bought the derelict structure near the motorway onramp, got resource consent last week to redesign the building.
He has Auckland City Council permission for a 90-unit motel, increasing the number of rooms from the original 55.
The roof structure and the internal arrangement will change.
Three-times-bankrupt property developer Graeme Raymond was building the motel but work stopped around the end of 1997 and his First Investments struck financial difficulties.
A motel operator is now being sought and the rooms will be priced at the lower end of the market at an average of around only $85 a night for 2 1/2-star accommodation.
Self-contained rooms will have their own cooking facilities.
The decrepit structure, with its rotting timber frame and open floors, will be partly demolished, Mr Gaze says.
All the timber and the roof will be stripped off .
The windows will also be removed and any cladding taken off.
"All the timber is basically shot. All the outside walls will come off and we're going back to the concrete shell," he says, adding that the basic structure is sound.
Construction will start in about six weeks, with completion scheduled for March to April next year.
Mr Gaze bought the building in an auction at the end of last year for only $1.6 million.
End to Hobson St eyesore in sight
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