Jackson and Walsh are the sole shareholders and directors of Wingnut PM.<\/p>\n
John Pennington said while he and his wife have not spoken with the famous couple directly about the situation, \u201cwe made the big mistake of naming them\u201d, he said today.<\/p>\n
Chocolate Fish Cafe owner John Pennington on the earthworks in front of the business at Shelly Bay in 2023. Photo \/ Mark Mitchell<\/p>\n
Jackson and Walsh said in a statement through WingNut PM on Saturday that \u201coccupancy discussions\u201d had been ongoing since early 2024 with the owners of the Chocolate Fish Cafe.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Shelly Bay development involves a significant private contribution, intended to reinvigorate the city and provide a public amenity for all Wellingtonians to enjoy,\u201d the statement read.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo deliver on the vision, a complete refurbishment of the historic Submarine Barracks building that the Chocolate Fish Cafe presently occupies is necessary.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThese ongoing renovations make it impossible for the cafe to remain open beyond January. Wingnut PM had offered to support the owners so the cafe could remain open into the summer period.\u201d<\/p>\n
A spokeswoman for the couple would not answer further questions about their plans for the project or building specifically.<\/p>\n
The billionaire couple purchased the prime waterfront real estate in Wellington<\/a> after a controversial $500 million housing development planned by developer Ian Cassels<\/a> was scrapped.<\/p>\n In 2023, the couple asked the community to bear with them as they worked to return Shelly Bay to its \u201cnatural beauty\u201d<\/a>.<\/p>\n The Herald reported earlier this year that Jackson was planning to create a museum and exhibition space, as well as residential accommodation in a historic building<\/a> on the site beside Chocolate Fish.<\/p>\n A resource consent application to Wellington City Council, seen by the Herald, detailed Jackson\u2019s plans for the existing officers\u2019 mess building.<\/p>\n As for the future of the cafe, Pennington hinted at a potential relocation.<\/p>\n \u201cPenny and I love what we do and and we are getting apparently endless amounts of offers and suggestions. We would hope that we can go right through [to the] 31st of January and then make some decisions, if we haven\u2019t already, by then.\u201d<\/p>\n Before operating in Shelly Bay, the business was located at nearby Scorching Bay, but Pennington said the couple would likely look further afield for a new venue.<\/p>\n \u201cI would have to think it would be elsewhere,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cShelly Bay\u2019s a special spot,\u201d Penny Pennington 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","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jackson and Walsh are the sole shareholders and directors of Wingnut PM. John Pennington said while he and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":65070,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[74,1561,1882,224,170,54180,8321,2082,679,42,30641,54179,5812,43,1536,9769,5413,10903,1314,22486,8485,22400,40,38,41,39,52,14605],"class_list":["post-67330","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-after","tag-bay","tag-cafe","tag-chocolate","tag-development","tag-eatery","tag-fish","tag-for","tag-forced","tag-headlines","tag-jackson","tag-jacksons","tag-make","tag-news","tag-next","tag-owners","tag-peter","tag-popular","tag-road","tag-shelly","tag-sir","tag-tenancy","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-wellington","tag-whats"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67330","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=67330"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67330\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/65070"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=67330"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=67330"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=67330"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}An artist’s impression of the proposed development at Shelly Bay.<\/p>\n
Shelly Bay. Photo \/ Mark Mitchell<\/p>\n