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IN JULY 1964, a huge crowd of Wellington teenagers screamed when their idols – the Beatles – walked out on to the balcony overlooking the corner of Willis and Manners Streets.
In World War II, United States Marines had the run of the place and entertained their lady friends. And during the 1971 Lions rugby tour, skipper Willie John McBride used bedsheets to restrain his rampaging drunken prop Sean Lynch after he wrenched the switchboard off the reception wall.
The Hotel St George – the Wellington art deco landmark that was regarded as the city’s best hotel for much of the last century – has been put up for sale by its Australian owners.
Orchard New Zealand Trustees – a subsidiary of Melbourne-based Orchard Funds Management – is the latest of a string of recent owners who have run it primarily as a student hostel. But the building, now all but vacant except for its podium, faces an uncertain future.
Colliers agent Michelle Spiers said it needed ‘‘hard work to get it up to scratch’’ but it ‘‘could be one of the best buys of the current recession’’.
Fellow agent Rosemary Bradford said the residential floors were vacant while earthquake strengthening work was done.
This would bring it closer to 50 per cent of the council’s earthquake code, but Victoria University was not willing to accommodate students in hostels that were that far below the code.
The building, with a rating value of $7.2 million, has a category II heritage listing which protects the facade but allows alterations to the rest of the property.
‘‘It would still make a great backpackers hotel or student hostel,’’ said Ms Bradford. It was so popular with students because it is right in the centre of town.
The St George was designed by William Prouse and built by Hansford and Mills for Grand Central Buildings Ltd for £100,000. It had 91 rooms and at the time it was New Zealand’s biggest and flashest hotel.
It was bought by the Lion Corporation in 1984 and 10 years later it was sold to Wellington Polytechnic and converted to a 143-room hostel. Victoria University took up the lease in 2008.
The St George is on a 1131square-metre freehold corner site. It has 6670sqm of lettable space and agents estimate it has a potential net income of $87,000 plus GST a year.
Ground-floor tenants include a dental surgery and a barber shop. A third 475sqm shop and basement is leased but unoccupied.
The first floor has recently been upgraded to provide 862sqm of good-standard office accommodation. The second floor has a commercial kitchen, a dining room and conference facilities.
Above that are five floors with a mixture of single and two bedroom suites.
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