Raining on Oriental Bay's Parade
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The Wellingtonian
An Oriental Bay landmark looks set to be demolished to make way for an apartment block.
The Parade Cafe at 148 Oriental Parade will be replaced by a multi-million apartment development in 2010 when the cafe's lease expires, if the green light is given by Wellington City Council.
The council has received an application from CAS Residential Ltd to construct a six-storey building and one basement level. The basement level and the ground floor will be used for parking, and levels one to six for nine apartments.
The two existing buildings on the site are not listed in the city's District Plan and there are no rules that would prevent their demolition, says the council's communications adviser Richard MacLean.
The council has received an application from the developer and is considering it. Any decision to publicly notify the development will be made after features such as height, bulk and impact on parking have been considered, says Mr MacLean.
Parade Cafe owner-manager Diane Schollar has the lease for the cafe's two buildings for two more years.
She says she has not heard of any plans to include a cafe in the new development and does not think she'd be interested if there were.
"The thing about the Parade [Cafe] is it's old and quirky ... if there is to be a cafe under the apartments ... it'd be the same as any other new cafe around ... I'm not interested in an average cafe."
Ms Schollar says she has thought about relocating but says the probability of finding other premises like the Parade Cafe is "extremely unlikely".
"I think the Parade is coming to an end, which is sad," she says.
The cafe has been known as the Parade Cafe since 1993. Prior to that it was a Mexican or Italian-style eatery, says Ms Schollar, who took over managing it in 1998, when it was owned by Aldwyn Cockburn. Mr Cockburn sold it to Craig Stewart, the developer behind the proposed apartments, in April this year.
Ms Schollar says the cafe is a very busy one, especially in summer when there can be 14 front-of-house staff working to cope with demand. The cafe can cater for 140 people across three indoor rooms and an outside deck.
Mr Cockburn who bought the building in 1994 is also sad to see the cafe go but says "you have to move on with life".
Of the two house on the site, the main cafŽ building dates back to the early 20th century, perhaps 1920 and, as far as Mr Cockburn knows, has always been an eatery of some sort.
Pre-1993 it was either an Italian or Mexican eatery and was also empty for a period before he bought it.
However, Mr Cockburn believes the Parade Cafe might be around beyond 2010. There is provision for two extensions to the 2010 lease expiry, he says.
Mr Stewart was unavailable for comment at press time.
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Its iconic, so leave the old girl alone.
The wellington city council is getting pretty pathetic as time goes by. we are loosing more and more historic sites and buildings to apartment blocks. do ms prendergast and her council committee really think tourists travel thousands of kilmeters from home to see pathetic looking low level apartments and highways? kill the tourism industry while she is at it too.
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Town planning at its worst, there are very few true gems along oriental bay now this is one. Of course Mrs Prendergast and her council will allow it it means more rates in their pockets.
Oriental bay was once a historic proud area now it is little more than a high priced concrete jungle.
In a country which prides itself on history and culture and puts this up as an example to the world, we are doing an incredible insult to Wellingtons so called cafe' culture.