The owner of Chocolate Fish Cafe says it’s “soul-destroying” not being able to open during the Fifa Women’s World Cup or Wellington’s unusually pleasant winter, with the road to the business closed for six weeks now after a suspicious fire.

Shelly Bay Rd is expected to remain closed until September due to the asbestos risk posed by the fire-ravaged sawtooth building, also known as Shed 8.

Police are treating the blaze as suspicious and an investigation is ongoing. The building was unoccupied at the time the fire broke out and the power was not connected.

Chocolate Fish Cafe co-owner John Pennington said they have cancelled several Fifa tour group bookings and foregone what would have been bumper weekends.

“The weather has been absolutely marvellous. We’ll reopen in September and it will just pour down with rain and howling northerlies. So that’s quite distressing because obviously, our business is very weather-orientated.”

“All these things are just soul destroying.”

Pennington said they had considered opening a temporary cafe elsewhere.

“But because we don’t have access to the cafe, prepping anything for a pop-up or something like that has proved just about near impossible. We looked at that, and put it in the too-hard basket.”

Pennington was grateful for the support he has received from the community, including phone calls on a daily basis.

The cafe has business disruption insurance and Pennington said they received an interim payment in July.

“We were just thankful to get some money, we are still paying our full-time staff.”

Pennington said they have been allowed back into the cafe briefly to sort out the fridges and throw out some items.

Another time they went in because police wanted to look through their security cameras, he said.

A police spokesperson said the investigation into the fire was ongoing.

“[We] encourage anyone that has information that might be of assistance to contact us,” they said.

Wellington City Council has informed residents the road is not expected to reopen until September, although this is dependent on several factors including the weather.

Council spokesman Richard MacLean said specialised equipment is required for the cleanup.

“The demolition contractor has installed the likes of bespoke 5m high shrink-wrapped scaffolding, a truck wash, water reticulation facilities, dust suppression equipment and decontamination facilities.”

Asked whether the council would prosecute people who did not observe the road closure, MacLean said the council had a duty to turn away vehicles, cyclists, and pedestrians.

“Our priority is to keep people out of the site while asbestos clean-up occurs.”

Traffic management could be seen keeping watch at the cordon yesterday.

The closure has also stopped construction on the controversial $500 million Shelly Bay housing development. Demolition and groundwork had been underway after years of unrest and the end of a land occupation there last year.

Development director Earl Hope-Pearson confirmed they’ve had to hit pause on the build.

Georgina Campbell is a Wellington-based reporter who has a particular interest in local government, transport, and seismic issues. She joined the Herald in 2019 after working as a broadcast journalist.