A heritage-themed accommodation business in one of New Zealand’s first pioneering gold-rush towns is for sale.
Coromandel Cottages is a freehold going concern business comprising nine one and two-bedroom self-contained accommodation units built in an 1800s replica style – with verandah decking facing onto a communal central manicured grass lawn area.
The design and layout out of the cottages, as well various antique industrial mining equipment and steel machinery parts located around the property, have all been designed to replicate a pioneering miner’s compound.
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Located at 1737 Rings Road, Coromandel, the business also consists of a three-bedroom owner-managers residence with office space.
Coromandel traces its commercial-scale gold mining roots back to 1852 when a small find of alluvial gold was panned at Driving Creek just a few kilometres north of Coromandel Cottages. However, it wasn’t until 1867 that a bigger and more lucrative vein of gold was uncovered in quartz rock in the hillside overlooking the outer Firth of Thames.
At its peak in 1898, Coromandel Town and its mining-focused economy sustained some 12,000 residents and 19 hotels. In 1900 the New Zealand Government opened the gold ore processing plant known as the Coromandel Gold Stamper – which refined and smelted ore from 65 different mines in the Coromandel district.
The Coromandel Gold Stamper’s crushing equipment was powered by New Zealand's biggest working water wheel, and was the first diesel-powered gold processing plant in New Zealand. It is this heritage that Coromandel Cottages has sought to replicate in its complex.
The 7,753sqm freehold property at 1737 Rings Road, along with the Coromandel Cottages business, are being marketed for sale by Bayleys Hamilton agents Josh Smith and Belinda Sammons.
Smith said: “The main dwelling oozes colonial character – from the original kauri floorboards, and freestanding red brick fireplace, through to the claw-foot iron bath.”
Ms Sammons said there was also the potential, subject to appropriate council consents to add a further two or three more accommodation units onto the site on what was currently underutilised flat grassed space at the rear of the property.
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