- Cultivate Christchurch is moving its farm from Manchester Street to Linwood with 200 tonnes of soil.
- The decade-old project has trained vulnerable children and supplied thousands of Christchurch residents with food.
- The 3179sqm site is being sold off, while the farm seeks corporate sponsorship.
An urban farm that's trained scores of vulnerable kids and fed thousands of Christchurch residents is quitting the CBD - but not the soil they've spent 10 years perfecting.
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Cultivate Christchurch is moving its entire setup from Manchester Street, in the CBD, to a new site 2km west in Linwood. Two hundred tonnes of dirt will be going with them.
One of the founders told OneRoof that the soil was too good to leave behind. "It's a massive worm farm, and such an incredible resource. We are too attached to let it go."
The urban farm was founded in 2015 and sits on a 3179sqm site that was home to an office block and flats before the earthquakes in 2011.
Co-founders Fiona Stewart and Bailey Perryman secured a peppercorn lease for the land, which prominent Christchurch investor and landlord Liz Harris owned.
Cultivate Christchurch turned an earthquake-damaged site in Christchurch CBD into a working farm. Photo / Supplied
The group is moving out of the CBD after 10 years of good work. They are taking their soil with them. Photo / Supplied
They were helped by Life in Vacant Spaces, an organisation that connects the owners of empty or under-utilised land and buildings with people who have ideas on how to fill them.
"Life in Vacant Spaces knew Liz Harris had this land, and a week later we were signing documents saying that we could lease the land for a dollar," Stewart told OneRoof. "I still don't know if we've actually paid that dollar; we might pay it when we say thank you at the end.
"We can't thank Liz enough because we wouldn't have been able to launch the project when we did without her. The amount of impact that it's had on so many people in our community has been massive. Huge respect for her and her family, who have allowed us to utilise it for as long as we have."
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Colliers listing agent Courtney Doig, who has been tasked with selling the Manchester Street site, said that the Harris family could have made a lot of money by using the land for parking, but had decided to give back to the community instead.
"Liz could have been achieving a really good rental rate to cover the rates over the last 10 years, but she didn't. She is truly a phenomenal woman, and she has done a lot of good for the city."
Doig said there were far fewer empty sites in central Christchurch than there used to be.
"It's unusual to offer the scale of what this corner holding offers. The eight combined titles that comprise the 3179sqm would take someone years to amass. So, that's unique in its own right. The most comparable site would be that of 248 Manchester Street, which has now been developed by Grocott Freer [Property].
Harris' site will likely attract the attention of property developers. Photo / Supplied
"That was previously St Luke's Church and owned by the Anglican Church. It was demolished [after the earthquakes], and the site has been developed into around 20 terrace homes. I expect a similar outcome for Liz's land."
Zoned high density residential under the Christchurch District Plan, the neighbourhood has seen a post-earthquake wave of new residential development.
Harris said she and her husband John were selling up because it felt like the right time to do so. "I'm 70 now, and it's just time to realise that money and not have it sitting there."
She said she rarely goes into central Christchurch these days, but she does like to drop by the gardens when she does. "They were always very nice," she said. "They were very happy to give me vegetables."
The Harris family is well known for its ongoing revitalisation of New Brighton Mall and is selling this land to focus on the seaside suburb, Doig said.
Stewart said that Cultivate Christchurch and Edible Canterbury received support from the Christchurch City Council, Rātā Foundation, and the Department of Internal Affairs community grants, but were looking for a new corporate sponsor.
