Majestic Mansions block sold

The landmark 90-year-old Majestic Mansions apartment block at St Clair has been sold for an undisclosed sum, and leased back to former owner and local developer Stephen Chittock.

The three-storeyed Mansions, which had a rateable value of $1.4 million, went on the market last August, three years after Mr Chittock spent more than $350,000 redeveloping the former flats into 12 serviced apartments.

Mr Chittock yesterday confirmed the sale went through last Friday, to a private Dunedin motelier, and he would lease back the Mansions.

His intention is to use some Mansions space to expand laundry services for the adjacent $14 million 26-room St Clair Beach Resort boutique hotel, which opened in mid-December, and of which Mr Chittock is a joint venture partner, with the property division of construction company Calder Stewart.

Mr Chittock purchased nine of the 11 residential properties bounded by Bedford St, Beach St and the Esplanade in recent years, including $2.8 million paid for the three houses originally on the hotel site, but he is taking two Bedford St houses he owns off the market, as they attracted only would-be residential buyers.

He announced last August he intended building a $9 million development of up to 20 apartments and four retail units on a 1000sq m section now occupied by the Esplanade Motel and a house.

However, yesterday he said he was separately considering another apartment block, on the site of the two Bedford St houses, incorporating up to 18 units and a two-level underground parking facility for 250 vehicles, costing a "similar" estimated $9 million.

He is seeking co-investors for both proposals.

In October 2006, the Esplanade block was rezoned from residential 1 to local activity 2, which allows for small-scale businesses, retail shops, apartments and restaurants, with the maximum building height 11m.

Any development compliant with the zoning would not need to be publicly notified.

"The reason I've taken control of the land out here is to get the best possible outcome for the city . . . so it remains a destination for visitors and the people of Dunedin," he said.

Proceeds for the Mansions' sale would be used to reduce business debt.

Any decision on the apartment block proposals would be made after talks with the Dunedin City Council.