For nearly 60 years, one of New Zealand’s largest music stores sat in Auckland’s CBD, adorned with brightly coloured paintings of microphones, guitars and saxophones.
But for months now, the old store has been in a state of partial demolition with only part of the storefront remaining among a pile of wood, concrete and an ever-growing pile of rubbish.
Wooden boards and a metal fence surround the site covered in various tags and graffiti and a Barfoot and Thompson for sale or lease sign is displayed front and centre on the only remaining piece of the storefront.
MusicWorks moved out of the site in February 2023 into a new store on Mt Eden’s Dominion Rd, and since then the future of the site on one of the city’s busiest streets is uncertain.
The property was first listed for sale in 2019 by Colliers and by Bayleys in 2020 — it was sold for more than $11m, according to property records, to a company called Build Power Limited that year.
The directors of Build Power Ltd own a number of companies, including Nation Shine Holdings Ltd, the developer of townhouses in Auckland’s Silverdale.
The site is now listed as for sale by negotiation on the Barfoot and Thompson website, with images that show the no longer standing store.
Demolition of the site happened about six months ago and the real estate agent listed as selling the site, Kevin Hu, did not seem to know what would be happening to the freehold site.
Hu seemed confused when called by RNZ and said he had “no idea what was going on with the site”.
“I’ve had no updates from the owners, I don’t know. Ask Auckland Council,” he urged.
A man who answered the phone number listed for Nation Shine, the development business owned by the same directors as the Hobson St site, did not seem to know much about its future either.
The man said the site had been leased to a demolition company for the past few months and said it “wasn’t on the market at the moment”, but said he was “open to selling it”.
“We planned to make site into apartments,” he said, but admitted there was “no plan” for the half-demolished site going forward.
Auckland Council had been in touch with the property owner to find out why demolition of the building had not been completed, acting compliance manager David Pawson confirmed.
“We understand the building owner was seeking permission to access the neighbouring property and this permission has now been given.”
Pawson said the rest of the demolition should be carried out in October.
The council said no resource consents or building consents had been lodged recently for the building.
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