Rangitīkei District Council puts Marton buildings with ‘beautiful character’ on the market

The heritage-listed former Rangitīkei District Council offices in Broadway and High St in Marton are for sale. Photo / NZME

A set of council-owned buildings in Broadway and High St in Marton are up for sale with hopes an interested developer might retain their unique character.

Rangitīkei District Council intended to renovate the buildings and move into them, with Mayor Andy Watson saying it would have strengthened the main street.

Instead, the council will build a new $19 million council administration building that will incorporate the library and information centre on its existing High St site in Marton.

“From my point of view it is disappointing, I would have liked to have seen council buildings being built in the main street,” Watson said.

“However, the reality of dealing with the heritage aspects of the building and no absolute guarantee that we would get heritage sign-off has complicated the issue.”

Watson said he hoped whoever bought the buildings would be able to develop them and maintain their facade and appearance.

“We would want to work with any developer and see how we could support them in this process,” he said.

“I’d love to see retail in that space rather than it just becoming a facility or office space.”

Property Brokers real estate agent Richard White said the buildings had character features such as suspended ceilings, tin ceilings and wooden panelling.

“There’s beautiful character in there, it’s just about the right person coming along with the vision,” he said.

“All the windows that are in that building are made locally, and back in the day when those windows were made for the building, pretty much majority of windows in New Zealand were made in little old Marton.”

The Cobbler, Davenport Brothers and Abraham and Williams buildings date from 1900 to 1920.

The Davenport building was constructed for storekeeper brothers Samuel Johnson (1858-1931) and German Morton (1863-1934) Davenport, who purchased the property in 1895.

From their premises they sold general household merchandise, clothing and groceries.

The buildings are a prominent feature of the main street and are set on about 1678sq m of land.

Eva de Jong is a reporter for the Whanganui Chronicle covering health stories and general news. She began as a reporter in 2023.