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Entering Wellington’s old air traffic control tower is an unpretentious experience. All that is on the ground floor is a single huge room, two closets and a jumble of cables.
The next two floors are similar. The word summary comes to mind.
There is almost no natural light, half of the windows are covered with bars and quite a few doors have notices, either for electrical reasons or because they open onto a precarious balcony.
The top floor is a hike to get to. The only path is four flights of narrow, winding stairs. But the view from the top is worth it, dwarfing everything else about the property.
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On one side is a view of Wellington’s Lyall Bay, on the other is Evans Bay. And in front is a perfect view of the runway, to see how the planes enter and leave the capital.
The property, at 34-36 Tirangi Rd, is for sale, after being replaced with a new tower later in 2018.
ROSA WOODS / Things
Airways’ head of service delivery, Torres, Sophia Healey, said the tower had become a local landmark.
Tommy’s real estate agent Billy Bell said the property, which has a starting price of $ 895,000, is the most unusual he has ever sold.
“The most scandalous things we usually have are houses designed like boats, but we don’t have Airways towers.”
ROSA WOODS / Things
The room on the top floor would need a bit of work, but the view, stretching from Lyall Bay to Evans Bay, would make it worth it.
Interest had risen since it was posted Thursday morning.
“We had a couple of aircraft observers who called quite early.
“We’ve been talking to the developers for the last week before it goes on the market, and in the next few days we’ll find out more who the people are who are really going to be seriously looking at this property.”
ROSA WOODS / Things
The 14.2m tower was built in the 1950s and spent 60 years gazing up at Wellington’s skies.
The most likely scenario is that the property will be purchased and the tower demolished to build homes, but some at Airways New Zealand, which runs air traffic control, hoped that “The Grand Old Lady of Wellington” would be made instead.
However, it would require work. It needs to be reinforced in the event of an earthquake and to remove asbestos.
ROSA WOODS / Things
Interest had come from both aircraft watchers and property developers, despite the listing only being released Thursday morning.
Airways NZ head of service delivery Sophia Healey said the tower, believed to be the only one in the world with a residential address and its own mailbox, had become a local landmark.
“It has become a feature of the street and actually part of the neighborhood, so I suppose residents are a little sorry that it is leaving.”
The building is steeped in history. Built in the 1950s, it spent 60 years watching flights get in and out of the city safely – about seven million in all.
It was never an easy job. Wellington Airport is notorious, with water at each end of the runway.
ROSE WOODS
Most of the building is modest, a jumble of empty rooms, cables, and danger signs, without much natural light and accessible only by stairs.
And of course, there were the “meteorological (meteorological) conditions,” Healey said, with planes affecting the wind on approach and departure.
The tower is 14.2 m high, half the height of the new tower, due to its practical location on a hill.
But if it were demolished, any new construction would not have to measure more than 11 m, which means that it would lose a floor.
The property is being sold by tender, which closes on October 28.
