Hadleigh Reid outside his recently restored building on Drews Ave, which now houses six apartments. Photo / Bevan Conley
Hadleigh Reid outside his recently restored building on Drews Ave, which now houses six apartments. Photo / Bevan Conley
Hadleigh Reid's latest heritage restoration project is finished, with his eyes now turned on to the next one.
Reid, who owns a string of buildings along Drews Ave in central Whanganui, has finished work at 42 Drews Ave.
The building has been converted into six apartments. Five of them arealready occupied, with the sixth set to be filled by a tenant from the United States in May.
Restoration work on the 1921 Stevenson's Building began in the second half of 2020.
"They are mostly two bedrooms, with a couple of singles and a triple. There are two upstairs, two at the bottom and two at the back on the bottom," Reid said.
Shane Stone Builders has been the muscle behind the restoration, meticulously working away over the past 14 months to bring the building back to life.
"It took about 14 months when it was supposed to take 12 months. All things considered, we did pretty well. It could have been a lot worse."
Hadleigh Reid bought a string of buildings along Drews Ave around four years ago. Photo / Bevan Conley
Substantial strengthening and repurposing work has been done to the inside of the building. Reid felt it was important to keep some elements such as the exposed brick where appropriate; everything else was stripped away.
"We tried to leave a few things that looked cool. There was really nothing nice to the building in the inside. In the odd areas where we could, we tried to keep some of that historic character.
"It took a lot of time to get anywhere visually. There were so many months of just strengthening and under-floor work. It took a lot. We wanted to keep some of the wooden floors, but it was just so hard to get under them to insulate them."
The building was originally a darkish green, but a trip to Spain a few years ago inspired Reid to change up the colour scheme.
"I had a mate who married a Spanish girl in Madrid two or three years ago. I went over for the wedding and in Madrid I noticed a lot of the buildings had a sort of terracotta style with lighter tones."
With the apartments all finished and tenants in, Reid's attention is turning to the two neighbouring buildings.
Work is set to begin in the next months and he hopes the restoration will be finished by the end of the year.
SourBros bakery is set to move into the two-storey building, with Porridge Watson's Tony Sundman brewing up some plans for the neighbouring building.
"It has been good timing with the revamp of Drews Ave over the last few years. Once the Sarjeant Gallery is finished, this whole side of town has been freshened up a lot."
SourBros and Porridge Watson are set to fill the two buildings between Victoria House and the apartment building. Photo / Bevan Conley
A dentist by trade and a Whanganui district councillor, Reid said his time with the council had fired his passion for the significance and importance of heritage buildings and how they could be utilised.
"Council has motivated me to do a lot of stuff like this. We often talk about encouraging people to live in town and utilise the spaces above these buildings and appreciate some of the heritage."
The whole process has been a slow, drawn-out one for Reid, with building and fire consent issues, stock issues due to Covid-19 and the associated lockdowns and shortages.
He was looking forward to enjoying a cold beer at Porridge Watson once all the work was done.
"It just dragged and dragged and dragged on. It's been really nice to finish it and a bit of a relief. Sometimes when these builds take over a year, it feels like it is never going to end.
"Sometimes you get a bit tired and worn out with these things. It's not until you walk through it with someone and you realise what you have done. It surprised me how much people appreciate restoration projects."
