A historic Auckland church building that was damaged by fire two years ago and had been the subject of a fierce fight over its future has been sold.
The mortgagee sale of St James Church, in Mount Eden, was concluded less than a year after it was bought by a developer.
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The sale price for 31 Esplanade Road has not been disclosed but the property has a $5.2 million CV, is in the prized double grammar zone and offers 2272sqm of land zoned mixed housing urban.
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Bayleys Commercial agents Alan Haydock and Damien Bullick brokered the deal. During the marketing campaign in September, the pair told OneRoof the property was being offered with resource consent to convert the former church building to residential apartments.
Haydock told OneRoof in September that the site was made up of two main parts: the church building and "approximately 900sqm of surplus vacant land which is suitable for residential development".
St James Church building, in Mount Eden, Auckland, was sold with resource consent for apartments. Photo / Supplied
“The former St James Church structure has had a resource consent granted for conversion into four residential apartments."
Haydock and Bullick also sold the former the St Johns Church at 229A Ponsonby Road earlier this year.
The 2462sqm site, which was brought to market just before the start of the Covid-19 crisis, had been pitched as a development buy.
The sale of St James Church will put a cap on the site's recent troubled history.
The former St Johns Church building at 229A Ponsonby Road was pitched at developers. Photo / Supplied
The church building, which was designed by Robert Watt and John Mitchell and built in 1900, was used as a place of worship until its closure in 2012 after it was found to be structurally unsafe.
The property, which has a category B historic heritage listing, had been at the centre of a long legal fight after a developer agreed in 2014 to buy it for an undisclosed price, on the condition his company could demolish the hall.
Shortly after the Environment Court ruled against Auckland's Council's bid to stop the demolition, a fire broke out at the property, resulting in the forced demolition of one of the two buildings on the site.
The developer sold the site at the end of last year but the new owners decided to put it on the market not long after with another real estate agency, saying their plans had changed and that they could no longer keep the property.
