Squeezed between Stanley St and Coronation Dr, the church, which opened in 1968, sits on an increasingly valuable 1998sq m site: in 2021, its capital valuation was $9,780,000.
With Queenstown’s growth mostly occurring beyond Frankton, the church sees this area — where its St Margaret’s Church is located — as its future.
However, no decision has been made whether it will stick with St Margaret’s Church, and perhaps expand it, or build on a greenfields Frankton site.
"We kind of don’t know until we get a price [for St Andrew’s] what the next options look like," building committee member Tim Buchanan said.
Kim Wilkinson, the Wakatipu parish’s property and finance convener, said St Andrew’s was "on a wonderful site, but it’s become a difficult site for local people to access".
"The rooms in the building used to be rented to many community groups, but that’s dropped off considerably over the years, and many groups prefer to rent the rooms available at our St Margaret’s Church where there’s plenty of parks.
"The maintenance of our buildings is high, including insurance costs, and if we can’t rent out those rooms, then it can make it difficult.
"And the value of the site has increased massively — that just gave us an opportunity to look at what we might do in future."
As to what parishioners feel about the sale, Mr Wilkinson said "it’s kind of a feeling of inevitability".
