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Duke & Cooke Property News |
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Published on: 30th January 2010 EDUCATION CENTRE BLESSED EDUCATION CENTRE BLESSEDTHE Brook Waimarama Sanctuary is a step closer to becoming a major tourist attraction, with the unveiling of its $500,000 conservation education centre. The centre, a partnership between the Nelson Marlborough Institute of Technology (NMIT), the sanctuary and the Department of Conservation (DOC), was blessed at a ceremony yesterday. It features classrooms, workshops and common areas for a range of conservation education activities. The centre, which will be opened in March, will eventually become the base for DOC training for the South Island. The Nelson Mail (27 January 2010) FIRE-HIT KINDY GETS OFF TO FRESH STARTTHE staff and children at Richmond’s Waverley St Kindergarten are happy to be home. The kindergarten’s 80 children were forced to relocate to the Waimea Old Boys rugby clubrooms on Gladstone Rd in July last year after a suspicious fire ravaged their building. Nelson District Kindergarten Association chief executive Wendy Logan said the cost of repairing the building, replacing equipment and relocating for a few months was $125,000. It was covered by insurance. The Nelson Mail (28 January 2010) $8M NEEDED FOR GALLERY WORKSNELSON’S public art gallery is going to need more than $8 million worth of works in a staged refurbishment during the next seven years to preserve it and make it a nationally prominent venue, city councillors heard yesterday. The trust has plans to move the refurbishment up a few gears, to include details of the multi-milliondollar plan in its draft statement of intent, which will go to the council this year. Stages one and two planned for the 2010-11 financial year would require $ 1.7m for architectural plans, the restoration and refit of the original gallery, plus the Sargood gallery and Suter theatre repairs. Stage three in 2012-13 is a proposed $1.7m new staff area and upgrade of the Suter Cafe and kitchen. The biggest chunk of expenditure is planned in 2014-17, when almost $4m will be needed to create a new gallery and upgrade the toilets and workshop, storage area, lift and landscaping. Stages six and seven in 2017 will require $ 783,000 to upgrade the McKee Gallery and education centre, and backstage of the theatre. The Nelson Mail (29 January 2010) SOLAR POWER NOT SO HOT, PEOPLE SAYHome owners pulling out scheme. CLOSE to half the Nelson home owners signed up so far for the city council’s flagship $9 million solar saver scheme have backed out, with many saying it is uneconomical for them despite the offer of easier access to a $1000 government subsidy. Others say they prefer to install solar hot water outside the council-run project, using contractors of their choice rather than the four selected by the council. Eighteen of 43 home owners drawn in the ballot to select the first 200 homes to qualify for the scheme have since withdrawn. A ballot in December to select the first 200 homes for the council scheme was oversubscribed, with 387 households wanting to be picked for the first year of installations. Under the scheme the council meets the cost of installing a system and the home owner pays it back, including interest, as part of their rates over a period of up to 10 years. Homeowners spoken to by The Nelson Mail who signed up to the scheme but The Nelson Mail (30 January 2010) PROPERTY WATCHTRAILWAYS LIFTS RATING A two-and-a-half year overhaul of some of the policies and systems at Nelson’s Trailways Hotel has resulted in it having its Qualmark rating lifted from four star to four star plus. General manager Garry Munro said much of the work was related to its environmental policies, and how it communicated those with its guests. Some of the changes included implementing its own recycling programme, and actively monitoring its energy and water use. ‘‘It has had a major impact financially, and we’ve had an impact on the environment as well,’’ Mr Munro said. ‘‘I was very sceptical for a start about doing this, but as we’ve entered into it it’s been quite exciting about what you achieve, and the savings you can achieve for your business by analysing your energy usage and analysing your gas,’’ he said. In the past three years, Trailways managed to cut its rubbish bill by a third. It had also been invited to apply to have its Qualmark Enviro rating lifted from silver to gold. The Nelson Mail (30 January 2010) HISTORIC HOME OFF MARKETHistoric Mount St property Kirkpatrick House has been taken off the market after tenders failed to reach the owners’ expectations. First National principal Colin Wilson said there were four tenders for the 1629 sqm property. Mr Wilson said the British owners would continue to renovate the property and would probably use it as a family home when it was completed. The nine-bedroom and three-bathroom property was once the home of Nelson entrepreneur Samuel Kirkpatrick. The Nelson Mail (30 January 2010) AUCTION RESERVE NOT METAn auction for a freehold property in Vanguard St with two established businesses was passed in on Wednesday. Numbers 33 and 35 Vanguard St are occupied by RJ Paterson and Paul Stephens Panel and Paint. Harcourts commercial agent Neil Hodgson said there was bidding on the property but it was passed in at $795,000, below the owner’s reserve. Negotiations were under way with two potential buyers and Mr Hodgson said he hoped a deal could be reached in the next couple of weeks. ‘‘It’s not very often properties like that in that price range come on the market in the centre of Nelson. It’s a good investment site with some pretty solid tenants in there, and in the long-term future it’s earmarked for development by the city, so it’s a great future development site, too.’’ The Nelson Mail (30 January 2010) ABBEYFIELD HOUSE PROJECTWork has begun on the fourth Abbeyfield house project in the Nelson and Tasman region. The Mata Close, Tahunanui, home will provide studios with ensuites for 11 residents and a self-contained apartment for the live-in housekeeper. Abbeyfield houses provide a family-style living environment for people aged over 55, while still providing independence. Abbeyfield has received preliminary inquiries from 31 people and it hopes construction will be completed by July. The Nelson Mail (30 January 2010) FIRST-HOME BARGAINS ‘HAVE GONE’FIRST-TIME homebuyers in Nelson and Marlborough are facing one of the toughest markets in New Zealand, with increasing prices and interest rates pushing affordability further out of reach, a new report says. A report issued by interest.co.nz shows the median house price in Nelson/ Marlborough was $343,500 in December. This was 14.5 per cent more expensive than a year ago when the median was $300,000. Interest.co.nz editor Bernard Hickey said that in NelsonMarlborough, based on a standard household profile, it now takes 42.4 per cent of the median take-home pay of two adults (with one working part-time) to service a mortgage of a median home bought in December 2009. During the same time in 2008, it was 38.3 per cent. In Nelson/ Marlborough, a weekly median house mortgage has been pushed from $393.60 to $455.92 over the past year.The median weekly take-home pay for a typical buyer in these regions was $694.54 in December 2009, up from $654.16 during the same time the previous year. However, during the same time, disposable income fell from $260.77 to $238.62. The Nelson Mail (25 January 2010) THOUGHT FOR THE WEEKLife consists not in holding good cards, but in playing the cards you hold well. |
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