Board sells Chch office

Press, 26 July 1984, Page 1

Board sells Chch office

The Lyttelton Harbour Board has sold its port building at the corner of Madras Street and Oxford Terrace to an unknown Auckland investor for $1,275,000. The sale marks the first stage of the board’s plan to centralise its administration in a new building to be built at Lyttelton. The board’s chairman, Mr George Wright, said yesterday that the property had been sold by Mr P. C.

Mangos, of Pacific Real Estate, Ltd, and Mr D. H. Rankin, of H. G. Livingstone, Ltd, with Mr R. D. Sheffield, of an Aucklandbased property consultant, Sheffield, McCarthy and Company, acting for the purchaser. Mr Sheffield said the purchaser wished to remain anonymous “at this time.” The board intended to lease the building for two years or until completion of

its new Lyttelton building, Mr Wright said. It has bought 3000 sq m of land at the corner of Norwich Quay and Dublin Street, Lyttelton. The land was formerly owned by R. and C. Holliss, Ltd, and Sinclair Melbourne, Ltd. Mr Wright said an architect would be appointed soon and the board was confident that a “functional and aesthetically pleasing building” could be designed for the site.

The board would not disclose the purchase price of the Norwich Quay land. Mr Wright said the board had decided not to build on land it owned at the port as it needed all available flat land for cargo handling. It has also decided against extensions to its offices in Norwich Quay because of lack of building space. The board’s general manager, Mr lan Brokenshire, expected a draft plan for the new building to be completed in several months. The building would house about 2000 sq m of office space and would be

three or four storeys high. The Lyttelton Harbour Board has worked from offices in Christchurch for more than 100 years. The Madras Street building was opened in 1959. The Lyttelton engineering firm, Sinclair Melbourne, also has plans to build new offices on a comer site opposite the Harbour Board’s proposed building. The firm’s managing director, Mr Bill Dolan, said new premises would be built in two stages, with work on the first stage expected to start in September.