Rent it out to the Police Museum

Stuff reports:

The future of New Zealand’s oldest purpose-built police station is in the hands of Wellingtonians.

A local couple are the proud new owners of the heritage Mt Cook police barracks in Buckle St. …

The Buckle St, category A heritage listed commercial premises, was built in 1894 by prisoners. It was home to The Dominion Museum and National Art Gallery until the completion of Te Papa in the late 1990s.

The building, at the base of the Pukeahu National War Memorial Park, is currently tenanted to several small companies on short-term leases.

Bayleys Wellington salesman James Higgie, who is marketing the building for sale by tender, said the new owners, from Wellington, had no immediate plans for the building.

As I blogged previously, this building would be ideal for the Police Museum – the oldest police station in NZ, and right in the middle of the Pukeahu heritage area. A memorial to fallen police officers would fit the nature of the area perfectly.

The current Police Museum (at the Police College) gets around 7,500 visitors a year (from last published stats). Move it to Buckle Street as a tenant, and I reckon you’d get at least ten times as many visitors.