Owner of Christchurch’s century-old NG building launches last-ditch effort to save it from bulldozers

May 13, 2021

Its owners have won a reprieve after a long battle.


Christchurch’s NG building has been saved from being demolished as its owners make one last-ditch effort to save their beloved building from the bulldozers.

Now, the century-old building's fate rests with the High Court.

After an almost decade-long stalemate, building owner Ronald Logan told 1 NEWS he expected the issue would have been solved years earlier. 

It comes as the 110-year-old building was set to be demolished for an indoor arena costing almost $500,000.

It’s the last building standing in the way of the stadium rollout, and Land Information New Zealand (LINZ) issued a notice of intention to take the land under the compulsory acquisition process in March.

“I would have thought this would have been solved years ago, I'm speechless really - it's beyond comprehension,” Logan says. 

His determination to save the NG building has never waned, after a promise made to its previous owner.

“He loved this building and I said I'd take good care of it – yeah, I'm just trying to live up to that.

“You stick your head down a rabbit hole and you can’t back out. Is it worth the fight? I don't know."

Due to legal proceedings, neither LINZ, the Christchurch City Council or the Canterbury Multi-Use Arena project would comment.

Logan says he’d like to buy the building and develop it into a museum or move it to “somewhere else on the block”.

“In this particular case, we just take the building with us. Very simple, I thought.”

Fundraising is underway to support the plan, with 50 artworks up for sale. It's an idea that was spurred on by his friend Ralph Hotere.

“Before he died, he gifted us a work for this purpose and he wrote me a letter saying, 'We'll fight this,'" Logan says. 

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