Ferguson's million problems with toilet wine bar

Olympic gold medallist Ian Ferguson says he had one million reasons to ditch plans to transform derelict underground toilets in Courtenay Place into a wine bar.

"That was my one chance to have a business that was totally unique in New Zealand and it slipped away - bugger," he said in an e-mail from Europe to The Dominion Post.

Wellington City Council had granted resource consent for a 45-seat wine bar in the heritage-listed toilet building, on the corner of Taranaki St and Courtenay Place, after Mr Ferguson won a commercial tender process in 2001.

The council had agreed to a sweetheart deal that included a decade of free rent. But the former Olympic kayaker said he felt uncomfortable with public comments against the agreement.

"I did not want to be the centre of a row about financing and couldn't afford any more time or money on a project that might bite me on the arse.

"Besides, the deal was not very sweet when I had to pay well over a million for a building that I then gave straight back to council. (There is) no money in property development if you have to develop it just to give it away."

He praised the council for its helpful manner but said because the project was a one-off, delays were inevitable. "The biggest issue was the wheelchair access and toilets as it is very difficult to accommodate wheelchairs in a restricted area, and also very expensive to build this access."

The council gave Mr Ferguson a deadline of February 16 to come up with plans. But he had realised that the wine bar would not be profitable. "I re-did the figures of the cost of renovating and building the whole area - it made it impossible to make that money back within any reasonable time limit."

He has no plans to open a wine bar at another site.

- © Fairfax NZ News