{"id":376263,"date":"2026-04-12T18:47:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-12T18:47:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/376263\/"},"modified":"2026-04-12T18:47:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-12T18:47:08","slug":"gordon-wilson-flats-demolition-victoria-university-to-spend-7-25m-work-to-take-until-2027","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/376263\/","title":{"rendered":"Gordon Wilson Flats demolition: Victoria University to spend $7.25m, work to take until 2027"},"content":{"rendered":"

In 2012, tenants were evicted<\/a> after an engineer\u2019s report deemed it unsafe in an earthquake or strong winds. <\/p>\n

It has remained vacant since and has fallen into disrepair.<\/p>\n

The university then bought it to develop a multimillion-dollar gateway to the campus above, which later fell through.<\/p>\n

\"TheThe Gordon Wilson Flats in 1978. Photo \/ NZ Architect<\/p>\n

The university said it had \u201cconsidered all options and unfortunately, restoration is not financially viable\u201d, but the site\u2019s heritage status meant it could not be demolished.<\/p>\n

Resource Management Act (RMA) reform Minister Chris Bishop, who has previously labelled the building an \u201ceyesore\u201d and \u201cugly scar\u201d on the city\u2019s skyline, last year announced the amendment would remove the flats\u2019 protected heritage status<\/a> and would make demolition a permitted activity under the RMA, allowing demolition without a resource consent.<\/p>\n

Early demolition work started late last year.<\/p>\n

The university\u2019s chief operating officer, Tina Wakefield, said their plan was to create \u201cwarm, affordable and sustainable student accommodation at meaningful scale\u201d on the 320 The Terrace property.<\/p>\n

\u201cFailure to demolish would incur ongoing maintenance, security and monitoring costs, escalating remediation or demolition costs if deterioration continues; as well as the opportunity cost of land on the fringe of our Kelburn campus sitting idle and unproductive, delaying value creation,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe demolition project is complex and is in a built-up urban environment.\u201d<\/p>\n

A timeline of the project states the university is \u201cworking through options to fund the redevelopment\u201d.<\/p>\n

Victoria University recorded a $7.7m surplus in 2025, after years of financial struggles, with its annual report stating that financial sustainability \u201cremains a challenge\u201d.<\/p>\n

It is currently rated as financially \u201cmedium-high\u201d risk by the Tertiary Education Commission, down from a \u201chigh risk\u201d rating in 2025.<\/p>\n

\u201cVUW\u2019s council and management are aware of the challenges the university is facing and that further improvements still need to be made,\u201d the commission\u2019s Gillian Dudgeon said.<\/p>\n

Ethan Manera<\/a> is a Wellington-based journalist covering Wellington issues, local politics and business in the capital. He can be emailed at ethan.manera@nzme.co.nz<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Azaria Howell is a multimedia reporter working from Parliament\u2019s press gallery. She joined NZME in 2022 and became a Newstalk ZB political reporter in late 2024, with a keen interest in public service agency reform and government spending.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In 2012, tenants were evicted after an engineer\u2019s report deemed it unsafe in an earthquake or strong winds.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":376264,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[18516,196244,674,69709,196245,31390,1359,46009,2740,40370,8993,1132,130,111,43,139,69,6791,33290,177914,14040,199,131,61,73886,1528,698,2821,52,1533,6038,4576],"class_list":{"0":"post-376263","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-zealand","8":"tag-18516","9":"tag-725m","10":"tag-building","11":"tag-cashstrapped","12":"tag-demolishing","13":"tag-demolition","14":"tag-described","15":"tag-flats","16":"tag-former","17":"tag-gordon","18":"tag-heritage","19":"tag-million","20":"tag-more","21":"tag-new-zealand","22":"tag-news","23":"tag-newzealand","24":"tag-nz","25":"tag-prominent","26":"tag-scar","27":"tag-skyline","28":"tag-spend","29":"tag-take","30":"tag-than","31":"tag-to","32":"tag-ugly","33":"tag-university","34":"tag-until","35":"tag-victoria","36":"tag-wellington","37":"tag-will","38":"tag-wilson","39":"tag-work"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/376263","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=376263"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/376263\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/376264"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=376263"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=376263"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=376263"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}