Board may have taker for old hospital hill site

ROGER MORONEY | Wednesday, September 8, 2010 15:30

DISREPAIR: It is expected that if the hospital site is sold to a developer, most of the old buildings will come down.

Napier's old hospital, which has stood vacant - and in places crumbling - since being closed 11 years ago, could be placed in new ownership hands within a few weeks.

News of a conditional sales agreement between the Crown Health Funding Authority and a potential buyer for the 4.6ha hilltop site comes as legal wrangling continue following a failed sale attempt in 2006.

Although nothing firm has been signed in the latest bid to buy the prime chunk of hill land a Crown Health Funding Authority spokesman said there had been negotiations with an interested party and that the authority's board had given the green light to entering a conditional sales agreement.

The authority, which is looking after the site, is selling it on behalf of the Hawke's Bay District Health Board and put out new tenders at the start of the year after the previous deal fell through.

The site had been sold for $20 million to a Wellington-based company called Napier Heights Holdings which put down $1.5 million as a deposit.

But after company director Eyal Aharoni failed to settle the rest of the financing by a deadline imposed by the authority, legal action began.

The dispute has still not been settled. The health board had expected to make about $15 million from the sale.

The latest rating value for the site is about $7 million and while no figures has been spoken of in connection with the latest negotiations it is expected to be sold for much less than the $20 million tagged to the failed 2006 sale.

Many of the older buildings on the site are in a serious state of disrepair, and blocked drains and a lack of guttering because of theft have caused flooding on some nearby properties below the old hospital. One Main St resident, Anne Vink, whose section became a torrent of mud and water after drains at the hospital blocked and overflowed, was left angry and frustrated.

"It is falling apart," she said. "It should be the pride of Napier but it's become an embarrassment."

It is expected that if the site is sold to a development company most of the buildings will be demolished.