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The Ashhurst Domain cafe has been abandoned since 2017.

DAVID UNWIN/Stuff

The Ashhurst Domain cafe has been abandoned since 2017.

The old jockey club changing rooms at Palmerston North’s Ashhurst Domain have housed several doomed cafe operations, and have been empty for nearly five years.

But despite receiving an offer to take the deteriorating building away, city councillors have recommended holding on to it for a bit longer.

Property group manager Bryce Hosking said the council could have made up to $10,000 from selling, and was facing maintenance bills for repairing vandalism at the unoccupied building.

He said the building was watertight and in “moderate” condition, and although it was old, it was not recognised as a heritage building.

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A proposal to take the cafe away has been rejected.

DAVID UNWIN/Stuff

A proposal to take the cafe away has been rejected.

However, selling would mean foregoing future opportunities to lease the building out if a new cafe proposal arose and was supported.

The building dates back about a century, and is the last structure recalling the domain’s previous life as a racecourse.

A cafe was set up on the site in what was a former sexton’s house by the late Stuart Whitten, husband of late city councillor Helen Whitten, in 2005.

The next operators struck disaster when the cafe was destroyed by fire in 2011.

The remaining jockey’s changing room was then taken over by former caretaker Ken Pratt and his wife Helen, who ran it for a couple of years as a kiosk called Sam’s Place, in honour of their late son.

It later became the Wetlands Cafe, which closed at the end of 2016.

A fire in 2011 caused significant damage to the cafe.

Stuff

A fire in 2011 caused significant damage to the cafe.

After the council took over responsibility for the building, catering firm Glasshouse Events sought council consent to use it as a basis for a new wedding and events venue.

In 2019 the council turned down the proposal.

Parks and logistics group manager Kathy Dever-Tod told the council’s finance and audit committee meeting on Wednesday the alternative to disposing of the building would be to wait and see the outcome of a reserve management plan review.

She said consultation about the wedding venue proposal had shown there was community interest in seeing some sort of hospitality business supplying refreshments at the domain.

But there was no certainty about where in the domain that might best be provided.

Until final decisions were made about how a cycle path through the reserve would connect to the new Te Ahu a Turanga/Manawatū Gorge replacement highway, the council was not ready to consult people about the future management plan for the domain.

Cr Vaughan Dennison proposed the council hold the building.

He said there was little financial gain for the council in the possible sale, and there was no urgency about making a decision on its future.

Mayor Grant Smith said there was more value to be gained from keeping future options open.

Ashhurst-based deputy mayor Aleisha Rutherford said there was no need for the council to make an ad hoc decision until the management review had been done.

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