The High Flyers building was damaged by fire in 2021. Photo: RNZ / Jimmy Ellingham
A long-time inner-city eyesore in Palmerston North is undergoing a $50 million transformation, with a new hotel expected to open late next year.
The city's former central post office on The Square was left to crumble, after the last tenant moved out in the late-2010s and a fire damaged it in 2021.
Three years ago, property investment company Safari Group bought the Edwardian building and, this year, began demolition work on much of the site, keeping the heritage-listed facade of the original structure.
The company will open a five-storey Tryp by Wyndham hotel in December 2026, with retail space for lease on the ground floor.
Safari quantity surveyor David Kirkwood and senior development manager Josh van Veen said demolition work was 85 percent complete, while strengthening of the facade had begun.
"Foundations and underslab plumbing-drainage to the new build is under way, and structural steel has begun to be erected," they said.
"In the coming months, we'll see the structural steel continue to be erected, as well as precast and CLT structural elements. By Christmas, we're hoping to have framing start to the lower levels, as well as exterior facade beginning to be installed."
Cleaning and restoring the heritage facade would begin next year.
The pair said its presence was challenging, as it had to be propped up during the demolition and building work behind it.
The High Flyers building will re-open as a five-story Tryp by Wyndham hotel in 2026. Photo: Supplied
"Reconstructing the original heritage features on the exterior of the heritage facade has created a few headaches, being able to find a way to create these elements with the detail required being one of them," they said.
The state of the building's exterior prompted concern from city residents over recent years, before Safari took on the building. The arrival of a huge crane at the site this year heralded progress on the new development.
Until the mid-1980s, it was the city's post office. From the 1990s until the mid-2010s, it became a popular nightspot, home to the long-running bar High Flyers and, earlier, Eagle Rock.
Many still call it the High Flyers building.
Twenty to 30 people work onsite now and that is expected to increase to more than 100.
Kirkwood and van Veen said they had an associated company - Safari Construction - doing the work. They had appointed locals to its site management team and had tried their best to use local subcontractors.
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