Demolition Of Hotel In Nelson Possible

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30667, 5 February 1965, Page 8

Demolition Of Hotel In Nelson Possible

(New Zealand Press Association)

NELSON, February 3. Nelson’s Trafalgar Hotel is up for sale. The chances were it would be demolished to make way for shops and offices. The licensing control commission sitting in Nelson was told today by Mr J. H. Reaney, representing the owners, the estate of the late Thomas MacGillivray. As a hotel the Trafalgar was no longer an economic unit, he said. If the commission insisted on improvements being carried out it could prove “embarrassing.” The chairman (Mr S. T. Barnett) told him: “It would be unreasonable to impose a

requirement upon you when you are on the market for sale. But if you are going to carry on as a hotel these standards will have to be fixed.” Mr Reaney said that one offer had already been made for the hotel, but it was not yet known what its future would be. The probability was that it would be bought by someone who would demolish it and put up shops and offices, he said. Mr Reaney described the hotel as the “most valuable corner site in Nelson,” and said its unimproved valuation of £14,850 in 1959 had now been increased to £22,275.