Saturday, January 9, 2016

No Go At Woods Mill

Lovely frontage, but...
A deal to restore the historic Woods Flour Mill building in Christchurch may have fallen over.
John Cameron, owner of the majority of the Wood Brothers Mill complex on Wise St, had been in talks for about two years, with a potential buyer who wanted to buy and restore the brick buildings. They’d hoped to sign a deal just before Christmas, but could not agree on a price.
The prospectives spent quite a bit of money doing due diligence, and sorting out engineering investigations on what is required to bring it up to 67% code.
So the property may be back on the market later this month.
The Riccarton Players own the Mill Theatre in the historic complex. The community theatre group hopes to restore/strengthen its part of the building and move back in. It would have to strengthen the building in partnership with any developer who took on the rest of the mill complex.
Chair of the theatre redevelopment group, Graeme Randle, says the theatre restoration would cost more than a million dollars.
...lots of work needed round the back.
Previous plans to restore the rest of the Woods Mill buildings have struggled to get off the ground: a $15 million plan to transform the buildings into a precinct of bars, restaurants and offices did not get beyond the planning stage.
Meanwhile, vandals and taggers are making a bloody mess...

UPDATE: 31 March 2016 - Back on the market again after another potential sale fell through...

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