The word in Wellington is an ex-pat New Zealander has purchased St Gerard’s monastery but the exact price remains uncertain. The name of the ex-pat buyer and the exact price the iconic Wellington property was sold for are confidential, says listing agent James Copeland, who was charged with selling St Gerard’s. Settlement on the property Read more
Plans to develop Wellington landmark St Gerard’s Monastery into a hotel have been shelved. Developer Richard Burrell says the work needed to renovate the impressive brick building for an international hotel chain is just “too hard”. Burrell had been in talks with the hotel chain to buy the building once about $20 million worth of Read more
Wellington City Councillor Iona Pannett says St Gerard’s Church itself is not at risk, but some “tough calls” might have to be made about the future of other earthquake-prone buildings that are part of the St Gerard’s Monastery. Pannett holds the Council’s heritage building resilience portfolio. She said a special grant was one option the Read more
The International Catholic Programme of Evangelisation (IPCE) owns Wellington’s St Gerard’s monastery and church buildings. The buildings are rated at 25 per cent of the New Building Standard (NBS), anything under 34 per cent is considered earthquake-prone. IPCE have until 2027 to complete the strengthening. They have just $42,000 sitting in a fund to get Read more
St Gerard’s Church and Monastery is at once a landmark, a childhood memory, and a workplace, housing up to 50 Catholic missionaries at a time. The buildings are hard to miss; the image is scored into road barriers and postcards around Wellington, and their bulk is plainly visible on the Roseneath hill overlooking Oriental Bay. Read more
St Gerard’s Maintenance and Restoration Trust chairman Gordon Copeland says they are seeking a second opinion about the earthquake rating of the heritage listed St Gerard’s Monastery that looks down on Wellington Harbour. It hoped to receive the results soon, and that they will prove far less strengthening work, or even none, is needed. In the Read more
The trustees of St Gerard’s Monastery in Wellington think the earthquake-prone designation might be unfair, and are setting out to prove it. The monastery’s heritage status means demolition would be very hard to achieve. Chairman of the monastery trust and former MP Gordon Copeland said the monastery and an adjacent church were judged well below Read more
A Wellington developer was reportedly told by a priest that his whole congregation would be praying for him before he faced an Environment Court hearing. This probably had something to do with Mark Dunajtschik’s proposal to give $5 million each for the restorations of St Mary of the Angels and St Gerard’s Monastery. The offer Read more