– NZ’s most stylish real estate agents: How they get their look, what they spend on clothes<\/a><\/p>\n\u201cWe have now established that there is no viable prospect of our securing that funding. Accordingly, we have no option but to list the property for sale. We cannot allow the mansion to remain unfinished and vulnerable to deterioration.\u201d<\/p>\n
McLean\u2019s Mansion Charitable Trust, which was formed to save the building after it was damaged in the Christchurch earthquakes, would be seeking a buyer who appreciated the \u201cheritage value of the building and is prepared to carry forward and fund the work which has to be done\u201d, Wallace said in the statement.<\/p>\n
Wallace was found guilty in March 2021 of indecently assaulting three male victims in the early 2000s, 2008, and 2016 and twice attempting to pervert the course of justice. He was sentenced to two years and four months in prison in May 2021.<\/p>\n
![\"McLean\u2019s](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/e125a6313d1d55747721f705438399ad.jpg\")
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The mansion survived the earthquakes but suffered a lot of damage. Photo \/ Supplied<\/p>\n
Paenga told OneRoof in June that the property, which has an RV of $4.86 million, could be used for various purposes, such as an art gallery, boutique hotel, corporate headquarters, museum, luxury retreat, or private institution.<\/p>\n
Much of the renovation work had already been done for buyers, he said.<\/p>\n
Trust member Mike Edward told OneRoof in June he was confident that the building has a long future ahead of it. \u201cWe just have our fingers crossed that someone might have a propensity for the arts and continue with the plan. But I guess we won’t know until it sells,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe original plan was to make it an incredible art gallery space, and [Wallace] believed in that dream, and so he got behind it.<\/p>\n
\u201cAll the money that’s come in, apart from a small council grant early on to help repair it, has come from him and his wealth.\u201d<\/p>\n
Unfortunately, the trust could not raise the last few million dollars to complete the project, Edward said. \u201cThe trust just ran out of money, and so it’s with much reluctance that we’re having to part with it. But we’re really happy and proud of the fact that we’ve got it 90% restored, so whoever the new owner is, is going to be able to hopefully just get it across the line.\u201d<\/p>\n
Proceeds from the sale would repay loans, and any leftover funds would be channelled into the arts, Edward said.<\/p>\n
Many of Christchurch\u2019s stately homes were irreparably damaged in the 2010 and 2011 earthquakes, but there are still a few that remain and attract a devoted group of buyers when they come up for sale.<\/p>\n
Harcourts agent Cameron Bailey, who specialises in high-end homes, told OneRoof in June that he would sell a handful of colonial homes each year.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese big houses on big land are a bit of a rarity these days, because a lot of them have been pulled down with the earthquakes,” he said.<\/p>\n
Bailey added: \u201cThey are properties that people fall in love with. They\u2019re a lot more homely and unique than some of the new character builds.\u201d<\/p>\n
– Click here to find more properties for sale in Christchurch<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"– James Wallace’s Christchurch mansion, McLean’s Mansion, has been sold. – The 125-year-old property attracted significant buyer interest…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":205169,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,1258,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-205168","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-latest-news","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/205168","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=205168"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/205168\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/205169"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=205168"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=205168"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=205168"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"McLean\u2019s](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/6daa91da7eace62948c8a26b2930131f.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"McLean\u2019s](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/c0702ce6c71957d74ecd76e71bb3f663.jpg\")
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