30 June, 2022

Progress made on Bayswater landmark’s future

Bayswater’s landmark boating clubhouse is set for a spruce-up and community use after years of uncertainty around its future.

Owner Takapuna Boating Club intends to lease out the top floor – likely to a cafe – and to open up space on the middle level, with the bottom floor for boating use.

It says it has already fielded interest from operators keen on a long-term lease.

Commodore James Jordan says progress towards resolving legislative issues governing usage of the site means the club can now look forward to the heritage-listed building having a “sustainable” future.

“Community involvement and engagement is essential to us,” he told the Devonport-Takapuna Local Board last week. The club was beginning a process of talking to locals to gain their support. It wanted to set up a joint advisory committee and include iwi as well.

The hope is that in a year or so, the rundown wooden building – once used for dances – will again be a drawcard for the area.

“I’m keen to see the old girl get a lick of paint,” said board chair Ruth Jackson. Member Toni van Tonder said she wished things could move even faster.

Jordan said the club intended to spend $500,000-$700,000 on the exterior, including painting it and rebuilding decks that cover a silted-up saltwater pool. Before that happened, it needed local board and Auckland Council backing for a law change, which North Shore MP Simon Watts is backing. This would allow for some commercial use of the build- ing, currently prohibited under a 1923 Act of Parliament dating back to when the land was gifted to the club.

The legislation states that the land and building cannot be used for private gain, rather “for the purposes of boating-sheds, public swimming-baths, social hall, or for any similar or incidental purpose”.

Jackson put forward recommendations that the Act be changed to allow leasing, provided returns went back into the building or for community purposes. Council staff had suggested this as the best option to safeguard its future.

“It’s a tricky one,” said board member Aidan Bennett, “because it’s effectively in ownership outside the community, but the community feels like it owns it.” He asked Jordan about the position of the Takapuna Boating Club, and if, as a private owner, its hands were tied.

Jordan said the club was in it for the long haul. “It’s not an asset that we see that we can sell. If we ever get to that point, it would have to be a community decision,” he said.

The ability to lease out space would make it realistic for the club to invest in upkeep and to raise funds for renovations.

The board voted unanimously to support changing the Act. The issue will be put to an Auckland Council meeting soon, followed by public consultation and then a seven-or-eight-month-long process through a parliamentary select committee.

In 2017, the council stepped in when the club tried to sell the building. Having ceased to use it as clubrooms in the 1960s, it wanted rid of the building and its high maintenance costs. While the club has spent $600,000 re-roofing the building and repairing foundations, it has held off on further work.

As a second-tier heritage-listed building its exterior cannot be significantly altered.

Board member Jan O’Connor, who in the past attended dances in the building, said: “It’s got a great history to it and it would be really great to get some heritage funding for it.”

A former tannery, it was barged in pieces from Panmure to the site in the 1920s. The swimming pool was used until the 1950s.