I am pleased to announce that our Society has purchased a commercial building in Upper Hutt, as our future office and archive. There is some work to adapt the new premises to our needs, but once complete, we will move from Ava to the new building, allowing us to sell our existing Ava property.
The purchase of the new property was no rush of blood to the head. Back in 2019 it became painfully obvious that our Ava archive would reach the limits of its capacity within two years. It did. Additionally, by that time, Greater Wellington Regional Council had published its water inundation maps for Petone. Based on modelled sea-level increase from global warming, it showed that by the turn of the century North Street would have ~1m of water. Additionally, the Ava archive is directly in the path of the Hutt River floodway.
These issues caused the Board to approve in principle the search for a replacement property. At the same time a “building fund” was initiated, the purpose of which was to place any bequests into this fund, which would ultimately be used to help purchase a replacement building.
You will recall that last year the Society sought approval from the membership at a Special General Meeting to allow the Society to enter into a commercial loan for the purchase of a replacement property. The membership approved that request unanimously.
Meantime, over the past four years we had been actively searching for a suitable property. However, our list of “must haves” was formidable, it had to be –
- Affordable
- Ideally constructed of permanent materials
- “High and dry”
- Away from rivers and streams
- Away from hillsides
- Close to public transport
- Of suitable size while allowing room for growth
- Could take deliveries at a service or back entrance
- Would present an appropriate image of the Society
We looked in areas such as Upper Hutt, the top end of Lower Hutt, Johnsonville, Tawa, Kenepuru and the upper parts of Porirua. After an exhaustive search over those years, we found a property in Upper Hutt that ticked all of the boxes. It is by no mere coincidence that KiwiRail chose to relocate Train Control to Upper Hutt for very similar reasons to ours.
The Society completed due diligence on the property, obtaining valuations, a builder’s report, LIM, and legal counsel.
The property at 9 King Street, Upper Hutt, has a footprint approximately 25% larger than Ava for the portion we will occupy, plus it has two existing tenants, so we also become a landlord. This helps fund the outgoings on the property, allow us to pay down our loan earlier, and will provide an opportunity to expand our footprint on the property in future, should it be needed.
This is an exciting time for the Society as we continue to grow our magazine and book publication activities, continue our advanced scanning program and house an ever-increasing and valuable archive of New Zealand’s railway history.
We look forward to sharing more news on this development as it occurs.
Grant Craig
President
