To build, or not to build – the Tasman District Council’s dilemma

Facing constrained space for a growing number of staff in an earthquake-prone hotchpotch of buildings, the Tasman District Council looks set to build or lease new premises for its Richmond base by mid-2028.

A majority of councillors at an extraordinary meeting on Thursday agreed that a preferred accommodation proposal – either councilbuilt and owned, or leased – is to be developed for inclusion in the Long Term Plan 2024-34. Pre-consultation is to be undertaken to help develop that preferred solution.

Nominal costs outlined in a staff report show a net capital outlay of $44.6 million for a council-built and owned development delivered in the first quarter of 2028. The first year of operating expenditure is tipped to be $710,000 under this scenario.

By comparison, a building leased by the council, delivered in the second quarter of 2028, that is owned by another party and not on council land, carries an expected net capital outlay of $830,000 and first-year operational expenditure of $2.5m.

The move by councillors on Thursday comes after more than a year of work on the matter, much of it behind closed doors.

Made up of four buildings of different ages, styles and configurations, the Richmond site is at capacity, with about 30 staff working off site in leased satellite offices along Wensley Rd and near Richmond Mall.

In 2020, the Queen St suite of offices as a whole was found to be at less than 34 per cent of the new building standard, and was therefore classified as an earthquakeprone building.

The council has a deadline of 2033 to complete seismic strengthening work. It has been estimated to cost $10.9m to $13.3m to bring the building up to 100 per cent of the new building standard.

‘‘This investment would not uplift the value of the building,’’ the staff report says. ‘‘The functional and efficient workplace constraints would still remain.’’

Council staff numbers are forecast to grow from more than 250 now to 450 by 2044 at Richmond.

The staff report indicates that a total indicative floor area of 4500 square metres would be required. The Richmond campus now has a floor area of 3730 square metres.

The release of a resolution passed behind closed doors in December 2020 reveals that councillors already agreed that the Richmond office would relocate to another site or undergo a full demolition and redevelopment on the existing site.

They also agreed that the council would not invest further in repairing, upgrading or expanding the current suite of buildings, except for any essential investment deemed necessary for health and safety, staff, and public wellbeing.

‘‘Co-location opportunities’’ with Government agencies were raised in the staff report, and were also discussed at the meeting.

Council chief executive Janine Dowding said co-leasing was an opportunity to share some costs, and would allow the council to ‘‘scale up and scale down’’.

‘‘If our staff reduce, or we are able to co-lease, we can bring other tenants in to share the cost. If our staff increase, then we can take some of that space back.’’

It ‘‘still remains really vague’’ whether the Government could meet the council time frame, she said, but staff continued to liaise with the Government Property Group.

Councillor Dean McNamara said he had a problem with ‘‘the whole process being rushed through at the moment when everything is entirely up in air with Three Waters, with RMA reform, with council reform, with everything that’s going on – Covid, the cost of building’’.

‘‘This is absolutely not the right time to be committing large amounts of ratepayer funds into this project, from my perspective,’’ he said.

However, Tasman mayor Tim King said the resolution was not to commit the funds, with the matter to be discussed during the development of the next 10-year plan. ‘‘We’re kicking the can down the road to the next Long Term Plan.

Cr Dana Wensley moved the resolution, and said a lot of work had already been done.

‘‘As Cr McNamara says, a lot of that has been in committee, but that doesn’t negate the fact that we’ve done a lot of work, and we’ve had a lot of presentations, and we’ve really drilled down.’’

The council was a big business and worked hard for the community, Wensley said. The issue was not only about the earthquake strengthening and staff, it was also about the council being a ‘‘good employer’’.

‘‘I really don’t want to wait,’’ she said. ‘‘I do note that if we own, we have the flexibility if things change in staffing numbers to convert any unused office space into a future Richmond community centre, which is sorely needed, or there’s co-lease options.

‘‘I do think we’ve discussed this long and hard, and we really need to go down this track.’’