Happiness House, at 4 Park St, sold at auction last Friday for $2.213 million — one of the highest sales in terms of price per square metre in the resort’s high-density residential zone.
It was bought with the tenant, community support centre Happiness House, in place until its lease expires in October 2018.Happiness House manager Karen Stuart said since the charity had been given notice in March its lease on the property would not be renewed after next year, it had been looking for a new home.
"We’ve got a couple of options in Frankton — not that they’re secure at all, but we are really positive about a move to Frankton if that’s what’s going to happen.
"It’s actually good, in hindsight, that this has all happened because we really have outgrown our premises with the growth of the need of the people in our community."
The three-bedroom, single-bathroom house was used as a drop-in centre, sold second-hand clothing, bedding and homewares, and hosted several programmes, including a gardening group that taught people how to grow their own produce. With support from local supermarkets and businesses, it gave away free produce every Friday.
There was "constant growth" for the services, Mrs Stuart said.
"As our profile is raised, of course, we are getting more recognised by members of the community that can utilise our services. I can only see us growing, [and] our resources are very limited here."
Mrs Stuart said 95% of clients would "follow us to wherever we went to".
"Of course, that means that we will be a destination, which we kind of are now ... but we still get 25% of people walking in off the street, so I don’t know how much we’d be impacted by that.
"We are excited about the prospect of moving, actually ... once you think in your mind about starting a move, you really do want to move.
"We’re so well supported by the community, we’re really excited, actually. It’s very positive."
Mrs Stuart said she was waiting to hear from the new owners of the Park St property about their plans and whether Happiness House could use an empty 50sqm building directly in front of the main home until its lease expired.
Last week, Bayleys Queenstown managing director David Gubb told the Otago Daily Times he understood the buildings would be demolished after the centre’s lease expired.
Mrs Stuart said that would be "really sad".
"It’s made of rimu, so it would be lovely to see it moved off site, because building costs are so high."
