Wellington's Municipal Office Building (the tall cream coloured building in the middle) sits next to the Town Hall (left) in Te Ngākau Civic Square. Photo: Supplied/ Wellington City Council
In a bid to offset a multimillion-dollar blowout to redevelop Wellington's Town Hall, the council is considering carrying out the project along with the redevelopment of a neighbouring building.
Wellington City Council is expected to decide next week what direction the Town Hall project should take, including whether to allow a private developer to also rebuild Wellington's Municipal Office Building, which stands next to the Town Hall building.
Integrating the projects would remove the need for some temporary structures as part of the Town Hall rebuild, but would delay the opening of the Town Hall, council's chief operating officer James Roberts said.
A grade one listed heritage building, the 120-year-old Town Hall has been closed since 2013, after being deemed earthquake-prone in 2009.
Costs for quake-strengthening and refurbishment ballooned from an initial estimated $32m to $145m, when work started in 2019. In May last year, the council announced that construction costs, made worse by the pandemic, would hike the budget by another $37m.
At a briefing to councillors on Wednesday, Roberts said completion was now projected to cost just over $264m, or $81.8m more than currently budgeted.
"The recommended option is to commit in principal to a funding increase of up to $147 million across the following years as detailed... noting that some of that money is actually required this financial year, because we are really at a point where we need to make commitments (irrespective of what the decision from council is) for work that needs to be done this financial year," Roberts said.
How the cost would be broken down over time:
- 2023/4: $14m
- 2024/5: $50m
- 2025/6: $48m
- 2026/7: $30m
- 2027/8: $5m
An independent review by project management company RCP had said it was "critical" to get agreement on scope and design details as soon as possible to avoid further expensive delays.
The council was looking for savings wherever possible, Roberts said.
The "most realistic option" was to leverage savings from allowing private development of the Municipal Office Building next to the Town Hall.
"The saving of $64.9m would require private development of the MOB [Municipal Office Building] site to integrate with Town Hall, delaying reopening of the Town Hall to align with that project, and the medium risk scenario playing out, which RCP says is eminently achievable."
Pushing back the reopening until the Municipal Office Building was finished would eliminate the need for a lot of expensive temporary work.
Simply mothballing the project would cost $204m and it would take until the end of 2024 in any case, with nothing to show for it, resulting in "reputational damage" to the council, he said.
The price tag for demolition would top $243m, and require extensive legal work to circumvent its heritage status.
Seeking additional funding from other sources - such as central government - had a "high degree of uncertainty" and any further delays would result in higher costs for council.
"Rather than engaging with government on this, maybe the council could use it as a compelling case study to explore wider legislative or policy change, or new funding tools that would help resolve the tension and complexity between protecting local and national heritage and addressing the problems of earthquake prone buildings."
The council was expected to make a decision on the Town Hall's fate next week.