40 | T T Richard Loader An artist’s impression of how the revamped Tavistock Hotel will look when completed. Central Hawke’s Bay: Armech REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT ‘Grand old lady’ set for a new era Rex Michau is breathing life back into the Tavistock Hotel; Waipukurau’s iconic grand old lady that for many years lay in a sad state of neglect and disrepair. Rex bought the property in 2021, utilising his construction company Armech to undertake the two-year $1.6 million restoration project. The hotel dates back to the late 1840s and was transported to the other end town to the southern entrance of Waipukurau in 1916, and then extended. Major repairs were also carried out following the 1931 earthquake. “My great-grandfather used to sit at the bar, so that’s going back a long way,” says Rex. “Waipuk had the third biggest stockyards in the country and the Tavistock is where a lot of buying and selling of stock took place. I remember as a kid going into the hotel when it was a Cobb & Co style restaurant. It was a special place to go then and there’s a lot of history.” In more recent times the hotel had been home to an Irish Bar and a Breakers Restaurant, neither of which had been operating at the time of Rex’s purchase. Rex had worked abroad for many years building factories and facilities for oil companies around the globe. Returning to his hometown five years ago he recognised the opportunity to make the Tavistock shine once again. “Waipukurau is on an earthquake fault line and the Tavistock was rated by the Council as an earthquake prone building. “Previous people had looked at the hotel and felt that it would cost too much to repair. That’s where I took a different angle. We 3D scanned every detail down to the last trim of the building and that has enabled us to get an engineering solution for the seismic strengthening work that will commence next year. We hope to have the entire project completed in June 2023.” Encompassing 2000sqm over the two levels the hotel will feature a range of accommodation types, a restaurant and bar, a lobby with a wine bar and grand piano, and a huge stairway leading to the upper level. “Ground floor will include two accessible ensuite rooms, and nine apartments independently accessed from the rear of the building. “The upper level has nine single workingman’s accommodation rooms with shared facilities, five ensuite rooms, and four two-bedroom apartments. All ensuite rooms will be accessed off the main stairway and will be the boutique part of the hotel. A wide colonial balcony will wrap around the building.” While Armech will be the main contractor for the building, certain specialist parts of the project will be tendered out. Wellington based Seismic Solutions was engaged for the structural engineering because of its experience with historic buildings. “The building has very good bones and was built very well. The goal is to faithfully restore both the exterior and interior to its former glory. There are a lot of art deco features in the building and we really want to make them shine. For example there are classic art deco fan shapes above the exterior windows. These will be restored and they will form the hotels logo with Tavistock Hotel below it. “The interior of the building has beautiful Himalayan cedar panels, which will all be brought back to life. We will also be restoring the art deco lead light windows above the internal doorways. What was the Breakers Restaurant used to be a wartime ballroom and has beautiful art deco feature in the ceiling and we’re going to try and retain a lot of that.” Rex says he smiles when he is working in the project. No doubt there will be many more people smiling when they can once again enjoy all that the Tavistock has to offer. “We 3D scanned every detail down to the last trim of the building and that has enabled us to get an engineering solution for the seismic strengthening work that will commence next year.”
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