Lake Hāwea’s St Ninians Church has been for sale since December and the community has been fighting to keep it since.
The church, being sold by the Otago Foundation Trust, was officially opened in 1938. The parish has been a foundational part of the Hāwea community for decades.
Anna van Reil was one of the locals who organised efforts to keep the church as a community-owned centre.
"People in the community feel sentimental about the church, because they got married in it, they christened babies in it, they’ve been part of community events in it."
Ms van Reil helped organise two meetings to bring the community together in search of a solution to take ownership of the church.
The group considered fundraising to buy the church and keeping it either as a community space or turning it into a museum.
"We had to consider a lot of things like security and display cabinets and all sorts of things" Ms van Reil said.
In addition to being too expensive for the community to afford, the building itself had restrictions and issues that people were not prepared to take on.
The church has a Category 3 historic heritage status with the Queenstown Lakes District Council, which means the building is restricted in terms of alterations, especially to the exterior.
The building was also reported to have a National Building Standard rating of 27%. The recommended standard is 67%.
However, as it is not in a high earthquake-risk zone, the report advised there would not be a need for remediation for another 25 years.
‘It just didn’t make sense to pay so much for a church that required so much repair," Ms van Reil said.
The community group decided to simply write a letter to the Presbyterian Church asking them to consider gifting the property to the community for them to fundraise and turn it into a museum.
The church, however, had other plans for the sale.
Hāwea minister Aaron Johnstone said although he too acknowledged St Ninians’ community importance, he was looking forward to expanding.
"It’s sad to have to part with a building with such rich history ... We acknowledged that we would soon outgrow our space and that a larger building would be necessary."
The Otago Foundation Trust has already bought land for the new church in Longview, Hāwea and submitted their recourse consent to the QLDC, including architectural plans for a larger building, and are now waiting for St Ninians to sell.
"We have plans prepared for a new church building and now await the sale of St Ninians for the necessary funds to proceed," Rev Johnstone said.
Despite the building’s restrictions, the Church and Century 21 real estate agent Anna Findlay seem confident they will find a buyer.
Ms Findlay said she had received several offers for the property, from around the country and even a few from Australia.
She said most of the inquiries had been from people looking to buy it as a residential property, rather than develop it.
Although the property has had some interest, the deadline for the sale has been moved twice in the last few months.
The deadline has now been removed with an asking price of $439,000 from the church for St Ninians.
