T.H.C. sells site

Press, 15 August 1978, Page 6

T.H.C. sells site

PA Dunedin' The Tourist Hotel Corporation has sold the Buckhams Brewery site in Queenstown A spokesman for the corporation’s head office in Wellington said yesterday that an agreement for the sale of the site had been signed “with a purchaser or purchasers.” The agreement provided that the new owner would not be identified at this stage, and that the price would not be disclosed at all. "The board has agreed to the sale on this basis and a statement will be issued in due course identifying the buyer,” the spokesman said. The new owner will take possession on October 1. The site has beer the subject of considerable debate in Otago. An old stone malthouse on it was demolished in June on rhe instruction of the T.H.C. three days before the question of its future zoning as a historic building was to be discussed by the Queenstown Borough CounHad the council decided to change the zoning and list the malthouse as a historic building, the T.H.C. would have been bound to comply and the building could have been saved. The demolition brought an angry reaction from residents who demanded an explanation from borough councillors at a public meeting later in the month. The meeting decided that as the Buckhams site was one of the last big open spaces in the town, the borough council should hold talks with the T.H.C. with a view to buying the land for public use. This view was later supported by the Queenstown and District Historical Society.