The Kimberley Centre

Once the biggest psychiatric hospital in the Southern Hemisphere and home to over 700 patients, the landmark Kimberley Centre in Levin is up for tender.

Also for sale is the former Horowhenua Hospital on Liverpool Street.

Both properties offer huge potential, with the development of lifestyle subdivisions an obvious draw for investors.

The properties are being marketed by Brian Kendrick, Dave Marriott and John Pope of NAI Harcourts.

Mr Kendrick says the Kimberley Centre is well known to locals as the place intellectually disabled people and psychiatric patients from around New Zealand called home until it was finally closed in 2006.

First opened in 1945 as the Levin Farm and Mental Deficiency Colony, the property includes in excess of 70 buildings and is spread across 48.6254 hectares of land.

It was renamed the Kimberley Hospital and Training Centre in the 1970s and at its peak had a population of more than 700 plus an equivalent number of staff. At its closure the centre’s final 250 residents were transferred to community housing.

Today its disused buildings remain in a fair condition, and include a mixture of accommodation buildings, community facilities, storage areas and a chapel.

With a CV of $3,850,000 the property is connected to town water and sewerage supplies, making it ideally suited for development as a subdivision. Interested parties need to make their own enquiries with the council as the land is currently zoned Rural.

The former Horowhenua Hospital covers 1500 square metres and stands on an 8.187 hectare site. It was opened in the late 1960s and finally closed in 2007 when it was no longer suitable for today’s medical needs.

It has taken seven years for the sale to go ahead as the MidCentral District Health Board has had to go through the complex government process for disposing of surplus property.

The property consists of three separate parts, each with their own title – the hospital on a 4.9 hectare block, a vacant 2.2 hectare site in Liverpool Street and another 9283 square metre block at the back of the site off Hinemoa Street. It is up for sale as one block.

Mr Kendrick says interest is expected from a range of buyers. As well as the potential to develop into lifestyle blocks, nearby properties are used for market gardening, horticulture or grazing. The hospital property also has the potential to be developed as a retirement village – given its close proximity to the new Levin hospital.

The Kimberley Centre property is level and little earthwork would be needed to profile the land for development. It is only a five minute drive to the Levin CBD.

Parts of the Kimberly Centre are currently leased to Riding for the Disabled, Tsunami Studios and a market gardener.

Both properties are offered for sale by way of tender, with a closing date of Thursday 3 April 2014.

The former Horowhenua Hospital