19 Mar 2010

Old Lake Alice buildings remain unsold

4:44 pm on 19 March 2010

A buyer has yet to be found for the former administration block of Lake Alice Psychiatric Hospital near Marton, 11 years after its closure.

The hospital housed the country's only secure unit for the criminally insane.

Most of the 56ha property was turned into farmland after plans for a subdivision failed.

Marton real estate agent Diana Hansen, who has been marketing some of the remaining buildings, says a couple from Whanganui bought the old three-storey water tower to refurbish as a home.

But no buyers have been tempted so far by the 24-room administration block and a four-bedroom house on a 2ha block.