Former Labour Cabinet minister Stuart Nash has ambitious plans to transform an iconic courthouse in Napier’s CBD into his next family home. The project has already caught the attention of Grand Designs New Zealand, but before he gets started he wants to do just one thing – sell his old house, which he has listed with a fixed price of $1.6 million.
After years of wondering what it would be like to live in such an impressive building, Nash and wife Sarah decided to take the plunge and buy the almost 150-year-old Marine Parade courthouse when it came up for sale for the first time last November – just a month after he officially retired from politics.
The couple, who will live there with two of their four children, bought it after a tender process last year and were the only ones who didn’t want it for commercial purposes.
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“There were a number of parties that looked at it, but we were the only ones that looked at it as a residential proposition. And when people find out it’s going to be a family home, they pretty much go – it’s almost like a light bulb moment – they go, ‘oh yeah that’s really cool, I can see how it would work’,” Nash said.
The prominent building, on the corner of Marine Parade and Hastings Street, started life in 1887 as the Napier Court House until 1988 when the Department of Conservation moved in and it became Conservation House.
Napier-based post-settlement governance entity Mana Ahuriri Trust took ownership of the landmark building in 2021 as part of the Ahuriri Hapu Claims Settlement and in November last year it was put up for sale.
The building had been used as the Department of Conservation's Napier office for the last 30 years. Photo / Supplied
The price the Nashs paid for the massive 1030sqm house, which has an RV of $3.77m, was still under wraps at this stage but their impressive plans for the historic property are less of a secret and had already prompted a call from the producers of Grand Designs.
However, the couple did not believe their plans were grand enough for the TV show because the strict rules governing category one protected homes means they will be working with the current floorplan and most of the changes will be purely cosmetic.
“When we move in they can come and have a look and if they think it’s grand enough for Grand Designs then we can have a talk, but I just don’t think it’s the massive transformation that you often see on the Grand Design programme,” Nash said.
“... This isn’t a grand design as you see on TV where you stay with a husband and wife who are very much in love, they have the budget and vision and then four years later they are sitting there going ‘the marriage has fallen apart, we’ve blown our budget by 100% and we are nearly there’.
The prominent Napier building, which has been both a courthouse and an office for DOC workers, is to become a family home with an Airbnb. Photo / Supplied
Despite it being the office for the Department of Conservation’s Napier-based staff for the last 30 years until it vacated at the end of February, Nash said it was a surprisingly workable space. They had already engaged a well-known local architect with experience in heritage buildings to help.
“We walked through it and went ‘there’s one bedroom, there’s another bedroom, there’s our main bedroom, this is the lounge, here’s going to be the kitchen area’. So, the way it is divided or configured lends itself very much to a residential home environment – it’s quite cool actually.
“The way it’s configured is pretty much perfect for what we want which is lucky because it’s a character home and if you want to do anything outrageous then you need to get sign-off from a whole lot of different authorities and organisations.”
Under the Nashs’ ownership, the property will be renamed Ashton House in honour of the original builder Edward Ashton.
The couple will carry out the renovations over five phases with the first focusing on creating a separate two-bedroom unit on part of the ground floor, which they plan to rent on Airbnb to generate additional income.
Stuart Nash is hoping to sell his five-bedroom, two-bathroom property on Milton Road, in Bluff Hill, before the courthouse property settles. Photo / Supplied
The property currently has a basic kitchenette so Nash said a new kitchen and a bathroom with a shower would also be priorities for the family who planned to move in as soon as their current character home sold.
“It needs a kitchen and there’s enough showers for a rugby team, but not enough showers for a family. So, there are a few things that need changing, but in terms of moving walls or adding walls nothing at all.”
They also planned to rip up the carpet tiles to expose the original kauri floorboards, replace the harsh fluorescent lights for some more in keeping with a grand house and repaint the inside. Some of the more impressive features such as the pressed ceilings and wooden panelling would remain.
A large picket-style fence would also be erected similar to one that surrounded the property 100 years ago.
Their more elaborate and ambitious plans that would likely appeal to the Grand Designs producers were much further down the track and included turning the first safe room into a sauna and plunge pool and the second larger and longer safe room into an open-air infinity pool.
“If you had a spare million dollars, then you would do it all immediately, but we haven’t got a spare million dollars which is the reason it’s going to be phased,” Nash said.
The family have loved living in the Arts and Crafts-style 1915 bungalow in one of Napier's wealthiest suburbs. Photo / Supplied
“We want this place to be truly iconic and for people to look at it and people to go, ‘man the Nashs have done an awesome job of once again returning it to its former glory’ because it did get a little bit run-down over the last few years I will be honest with you.”
Even the couple’s 10 and 12-year-old children were on board with the big move after promises of their son having his own gaming room and lounge, and their daughter allowed her own library and playroom in some of the seemingly never-ending rooms.
The central location with the beach just across the road and Ocean Spa 50m away was also something the family was looking forward to when they moved.
The former courthouse is due to settle at the end of May and Nash said he would ideally “love” to have sold their current five-bedroom, two-bathroom bathroom home at 60 Milton Road, in Bluff Hill, before then.
The 100-year-old Arts and Crafts-style bungalow, designed by renowned architects Finch and Westerholm, sits on a 1739sqm section and has been for sale since November. The listing, which is now with its second agency, was headlined: “One house too many”.
The couple were surprised it hadn’t been snapped up yet, especially since they had dropped their price expectation to $1.6m. It was bought about 14 years ago for just over half a million dollars, according to property records.
“Everyone is wedded to their own house right and everyone thinks their own house is outstanding, but you are talking about a place that is about 1km from the centre of town, 300m from the local primary school, 260sqm on reasonably flat land on a hill and a house that was 100 years old and at the time was a really expensive build because it was made out of concrete.”
Nash lived in the house when he was the local MP so along with a separate office, central heating, heated pool and man cave, it had even been fitted out with electric gates and internal and external security cameras.
- 60 Milton Road, in Bluff Hill, Napier, is for sale for $1.6m
