Demolition begins today at once-popular Waiwera Thermal Resort

Rotorua has a new thermal resort which just opened but Auckland’s sorry equivalent is falling apart, about to be demolished: Waiwera Thermal Spa Resort has been shut for six years, for sale for 16 months
but any hope of its pools or slides being used again is vanishing.

Greig Staples of owners Urban Partners said buildings would be removed over the next few weeks, including the distinctive wooden tower.

That tower could come down in about a fortnight. Union Demolition had won the contract.

Staples said: “The demolition process starting today is bittersweet as it represents the end of an era but also the beginning of Waiwera’s revitalisation.”

Images showed pools partly filled with green water, the tall wood waterslide in poor condition, once-loved elephants surrounded by grime and dirt and gardens in a poor state.

Buildings have toppled, reception has rubbish bins and its main welcome sign partly covered and rubbish floats in some pools.

But he said vandals hit the resort.

“The prospect of a much-needed upgrade in 2018 initially brought excitement, but when the operators went into liquidation the resort was in an unviable state. Since then, it has been an ongoing struggle to secure the site against vandalism, which has degraded the property further. It is now at the point where the existing structures offer no value to a buyer and it will be a positive for the wider community to remove what is left of the buildings,” Staples said.

He blamed the previous operators, referring to – but not naming – late Russian investor Mikhail Khimich and American Leon Fingerhut whose business in 2018 started renovations but never continued.

“The former leaseholder commenced a refurbishment as the resort was falling into disrepair. Some of the infrastructure was dismantled and left in a state where it was uneconomic to restore. The former leaseholder failed financially before the completion of the refurbishment and the site was left in disarray. Since the site was vacated, it has been an ongoing struggle to prevent trespassing and vandalism which has degraded the property further. The existing structures are now a safety risk and don’t offer any value to a buyer, so they need to be removed,” Staples said.

Statues of twin elephants and a seal would be kept, although Urban Partners doesn’t yet know what to do with them but hopes a buyer might incorporate them into future plans.

The demolition company would recycle as much material as possible, crushing concrete for future use and reduce truck trips, Staples said.

Pools will be dug out and the land recontoured. If some holes need to be filled for safety or other reasons, the contractors will use crushed concrete for that.

Julia Parfitt, Hibiscus and Bays Local Board deputy chairwoman, said: “It’s iconic. As a person who grew up on the North Shore, so many of our family and social occasions were there. During the last few years, it’s looked increasingly forlorn. It has become an eyesore. I’m so sad there are no redevelopment plans for the facility. This has such a special place in the hearts of people in the area. People have expressed the view ‘can’t something happen?’

“Residents were really hopeful that something would happen. They want to see swimming baths there and some of the types of facilities that sued to exist in the past. They didn’t want the bottling plant back though,” Parfitt said.

Kay Scott, Waiwera Property Owners and Residents Association chairwoman, said it was the end of an era “but the buildings as they are now are decrepit. We get a lot of people breaking in. I can’t see how it could be repaired. It needs demolishing except we would all love to see a community pool there once again.”

Urban Partners has been trying to sell the decrepit resort via Colliers without success since last April but Staples hopes demolishing structures might pull buyers to a cleared site.

The owners listed the property for sale, looking for either a buyer for the land or a wealthy partner to develop it.

Colliers was appointed to try to find the buyer or partner to either purchase the Urban Partners’ stake or enter a joint venture with that local business headed by Haydn Staples who is an accountant and director.

Urban Partners’ Doug Osborne said last year that the owners had always acknowledged the vibrant wellness industry was not its core expertise, “hence we are seeking an external party who can ensure the site delivers an operation commensurate with the location and its wider natural attributes”.

The pools shut in 2018 for a major renovation but the business that leased and ran them failed financially so the pools have been closed ever since.

Last April, Osborne said the business wanted to sell it as it was: “We are marketing the site to those interested in partnering, developing, or purchasing this world-class wellness destination,” he said.

Josh Coburn, Colliers’ director of site sales, said back then there was a demand for land in coastal areas. The opportunity to redevelop a coastal enclave near Auckland was a unique prospect, he said.

“Waiwera offers what no other property in New Zealand can; a coastal development of scale, within 45 minutes of Auckland’s CBD, with the benefit of a rare geothermal bore. Our marketing campaign will seek local and international expressions of interest to see this potential realised,” Coburn said last April.

No buyers emerged.

Urban Partners had an earlier plan for the site: a $250m plan announced before that which also never materialised.

In 2019, the business told of that master plan. Evan Vertue, Waiwera project director, said then that the pools and the slides could be opened again, along with a day spa, a hotel spa complex, a micro-brewery and apartments.

“We are very advanced with our council resource consent for the extraction of the geothermal water,” he said four years ago.

While the wellness/spa complex might be a cheaper and less risky project, Vertue said it made sense to start by building the water park and slides.

“It’s a strong, high-foot traffic attraction and would get Waiwera on the map. We haven’t scoped up the whole investment, but we are in the $250m stage, so we are going to look for other parties to hold hands with us on this one.”

Auckland Council told the Herald back then it “had not received any new or recent consent applications for geothermal water extraction at Waiwera. There is however an existing consent that was granted in 2015, which is valid until December 2026.”

The pools and a bottling plant were once leased to Russian Khimich but last year the Herald reported the businessman who formerly resided in New Zealand had died in Russia, reportedly with Covid.

Khimich got significant publicity around 2009 when he entered business arrangements on the bottling plant Waiwera Water as well as the resort. He planned to undertake a large refurbishment of the pools which started but was never finished. The two companies were placed into liquidation.

In 2018, the Herald reported how the site had been leased to Khimich and his diamond-dealing business partner Leon Fingerhut.

But Urban Partners complained of sporadic non-payment over a two-year period and gave notice to repossess the property. Khimich and Fingerhut never responded to questions about their leased operations at the site.

Urban Partners’ holding has been reported to include control of the campground, pool site and much of the town centre. The area is now bypassed by most traffic since the opening of the Northern Motorway extension.

Some parties had shown an interest in the resort over the years. In 2019, Damian Gorman, business development manager of the large Victorian-headquartered Belgravia Health & Leisure Group, said his business was interested in starting the discussions.

“We are willing to assess the options to invest and reopen the hot pools. Our hot springs venues are world-class,” Gorman said, citing the Hepburn Bathhouse & Spa in Victoria and Rotorua’s Wai Ariki Hot Springs & Spa, which opened two months ago.

A $52 million Government investment into Rotorua’s new luxury spa and wellness centre has “really paid off”, Prime Minister Chris Hipkins said in June when that opened. It adds to New Zealand’s tourism offering and promotes the unique culture of local iwi.

Hipkins attended the opening after more than five years of development.

The Pukeroa Oruawhata Group development on Rotorua’s Lakefront is expected to bring “thousands” more tourists to the region. It offers a range of services founded on the centuries-old legacy of Ngāti Whakaue. This includes a cold “frigidarium,” mud baths, and bathing in mineral waters from the famous Rachel Spring.

Former Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern broke ground on the development in December 2017. It was originally due to be completed in 2019, but Covid-19 and a subsequent construction crisis delayed progress.

So while Rotorua’s new thermal resort flourishes this winter, Waiwera’s is vanishing fast.

WAIWERA OVER THE YEARS

Pre-European times: Māori bathed at the place whose ingoa is literally “water hot”;

1848: immigrant Robert Graham opened the Waiwera Hot Springs Hotels;

Last century: hydro slides, twister, kids’ chute, movie pool developed into Waiwera Thermal Resort;

2009: Russian Mikhail Khimich bought rights to run pools and water bottling business;

2018: Pools shut for renovation which stalled, have remained shut ever since;

2019: Owner Urban Partners announces a $250m revitalisation plan, never carried out;

2022: Urban Partners contracts Colliers to sell the property, which hasn’t happened;

2023: Demolition to begin, Monday, August 14 via Union Demolition.

Anne Gibson has been the Herald’s property editor for 23 years, has won many awards, written books and covered property extensively here and overseas.