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Speaker 1: It sounded like the deal of the century when Kayga

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Speaker 1: Order sold Wellington's Dixon Street Flats for just over one

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Speaker 1: million dollars, And it turns out was the deal of

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Speaker 1: the century because just what two weeks and six days

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Speaker 1: later or something like that, the new owners, the Wellington

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Speaker 1: EWE Taranaki farnui On sold the property to a developer

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Speaker 1: for three million dollars. Ben McNulty is a Wellington City

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Speaker 1: councilor and with us hey Ben good O. Sounds like

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Speaker 1: a rubbish deal for the taxpayer, isn't it.

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Speaker 2: Look the building was in such a state when you

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Speaker 2: actually do the maths on it. Even at the three million,

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Speaker 2: it's less than twenty five thousand dollars an apartment, which

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Speaker 2: speaks about the actual potential to do that building. So yes,

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Speaker 2: the taxpayer has missed out. But the opportunity cost of

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Speaker 2: this is that we have another Gordon Wilson Flats. I

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Speaker 2: mean you've got almost a two hundred meters straight line

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Speaker 2: between Dickson Street Flats and the Gordon Wilson Flats. That

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Speaker 2: was the opportunity cost of you know, bartering and leaving

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Speaker 2: it for a long time. From the Wellington's spective, we're

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Speaker 2: just glad to see something happening.

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Speaker 1: And I can understand that. But you didn't have to

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Speaker 1: They didn't have to barter for a long time. They

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Speaker 1: could have just gone to Ian castles and see the

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Speaker 1: e we don't want to pay any more than a million?

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Speaker 1: How much are you gonna pay? Might have got three?

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Speaker 2: Yeah, because it's actually EWE land. It wouldn't have. They

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Speaker 2: had right of first refusal through legislation, was my understanding.

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Speaker 2: So yeah, probably we're going to get to that position where.

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Speaker 1: Why not been? I thought the right of first refusal

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Speaker 1: was that that you get the right to literally refuse,

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Speaker 1: and then after that, if you refuse or if you

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Speaker 1: can't strike a deal, KAO can sell as anyone else.

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Speaker 2: Look, I'd have to look into what the specifics of

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Speaker 2: deal web, but my understanding was basically it would sort

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Speaker 2: of a nucky father. You had a lot of delegation

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Speaker 2: whether that what they want to do with it or not.

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Speaker 2: And again that's for me, it's all about the outcome

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Speaker 2: three million, one million, that's not it's a drop in

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Speaker 2: the bucket for the tax payer.

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Speaker 1: Ben is the land underneath owned by the EWI?

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Speaker 2: Is it? Yes?

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Speaker 1: So anything that happens above that land, they have a

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Speaker 1: stake in it.

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Speaker 2: That's my understanding with it as well.

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Speaker 1: Yes, so that would suggest so is this more than

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Speaker 1: just a right of first refusal?

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Speaker 2: Again, I had to you know, sorry to be on

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Speaker 2: the back end of this one. But my understanding I've

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Speaker 2: just had the sort of high level discussions on this,

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Speaker 2: is that the e we had a claim on it

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Speaker 2: through either a treaty claim or through land ownership, and

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Speaker 2: that gave them more than a right of first refuse

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Speaker 2: or a strong right to actually be able to determine

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Speaker 2: what happens with that land.

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Speaker 1: So rather than a rite of first refusal, this is

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Speaker 1: sounding like a right to basically say, yep, we're taken

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Speaker 1: and these are the terms on which we'll take it,

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Speaker 1: basically call the shots.

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Speaker 2: Look, I'm at this point now I need to go

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Speaker 2: back into the actual specific because you can render this

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Speaker 2: as a deal between can Order and Talernuck you find there.

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Speaker 2: It's not a city council, No, I understand, you know,

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Speaker 2: my interest is much more obviously and not turning into

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Speaker 2: a stagnant urban olm.

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Speaker 1: And do you know what is the piece of legislation

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Speaker 1: that what is the treaty settlement?

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Speaker 2: Here again again, I really have no perspective, so I

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Speaker 2: don't want to just makes.

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Speaker 1: Okay, now what happens to it now?

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Speaker 2: So Ian Castle's he runs Wellington Company. He does a

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Speaker 2: lot of conversions of office buildings into residential units. He

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Speaker 2: does that for the council for a program we've got

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Speaker 2: called tek Kye. So there's no one in the city

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Speaker 2: who's doing more conversions than Ian Castle's at the moment.

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Speaker 2: My understanding is that he's looking to do something where

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Speaker 2: Taranaki Farm and he will have some units available for

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Speaker 2: their ew for housing, but he's obviously got to make

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Speaker 2: a profit as well on it, so he's got to

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Speaker 2: then convert and actually be able to sell some of

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Speaker 2: those units onwards. So basically taking a nineteen sixties building

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Speaker 2: that's dilapidated, cold, earthquake prone and renovating it and strengthening

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Speaker 2: it for the twenty first century and putting one hundred

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Speaker 2: and fifteen you know, new warm, dry flats and rentals

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Speaker 2: in the middle of the CBD.

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Speaker 1: Okay, so this is good. It's gone from state housing

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Speaker 1: to being something else. Now is it going to be

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Speaker 1: owner occupied? It's going to be private.

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Speaker 2: I imagine that the ownership depends what he wants to

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Speaker 2: do in terms of I imagine the EWE will have

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Speaker 2: a stake in it. That's my understanding. They will say

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Speaker 2: some units must be allocated via where do they own that?

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Speaker 2: Is it a joint venture partnership. I'm not sure what

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Speaker 2: structure of that is. But then he still needs to

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Speaker 2: be able to make his income. So whether he does

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Speaker 2: a rental model where he actually owns the units and

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Speaker 2: he actually just returns a rental for it, or where

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Speaker 2: he decides to actually onsell it. But the key thing

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Speaker 2: it's housing capacity right in the city center.

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Speaker 1: Hey, by the way, while I've got you, ben, have

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Speaker 1: you had a look yet? Have you guys? As the

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Speaker 1: city council had to look and to win, you know

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Speaker 1: how the shakeup of the earthquake rules yesterday will affect

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Speaker 1: the likes of Reading Cinema and the Amora Hotel and

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Speaker 1: all those places that are still shut up.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean there was a flurry of emails even

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Speaker 2: starting yesterday before the announcement, stuff saying please can we

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Speaker 2: find out this, this and this and basically the responses

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Speaker 2: and toy some more legislative detail. The answers are going

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Speaker 2: to be a bit sparing at the moment. But from

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Speaker 2: just what Chris Pink's announced with the two stories under

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Speaker 2: concrete not letting to be strengthened, I think the most

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Speaker 2: educated guests is we don't have to strength and slash

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Speaker 2: demolish the old Capital E building, which means that the

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Speaker 2: City to See Bridge is very likely to be able

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Speaker 2: to be remediated and saved. So I think that's probably

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Speaker 2: the one guess that we've got to take qua at

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Speaker 2: the moment. The other ones we need to just wait

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Speaker 2: and see. But my hope is that if they can't,

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Speaker 2: they can be remediated or potentially at a lower cost

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Speaker 2: because the ticking timeline. But no one wants Wellington to

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Speaker 2: confront is to Michael Fowler Center, but it's on the

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Speaker 2: same oil and surface to Town Hall, it's another beloved venue.

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Speaker 2: I don't think you could ever get a city council

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Speaker 2: brave enough to say bowl to Michael Fowler Center. But

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Speaker 2: at the same time, does Wellington have the tolerance for

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Speaker 2: another two hundred million dollars strengthening project.

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Speaker 1: By here, Yeah, thank you very much, being appreciate it.

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Speaker 1: Ben McNulty, Wellington City Council.

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