Town Hall reopening now 2025: needs $37m

The reopening of Wellington’s Town Hall has been delayed until the first quarter of 2025 and an additional $37.1 million will be needed to complete the earthquake strengthening project.

The Town Hall was declared quake-prone in 2009 and closed in 2013 following the Seddon earthquake. The strengthening work began in 2019.

Yesterday, city councillors were told in order to complete the project additional funding would be required, with a budget increase from $145.3m to $182.4m.

Wellington City Council chief executive Barbara McKerrow said a ‘‘complex web of risks’’ had eventuated with the project, which had been significantly amplified by the impact of the pandemic.

‘‘We have a convergence here of arguably the most complex heritage building upgrade in New Zealand, in a seismically-challenged city, on reclaimed land, with an unprecedented global pandemic,’’ she said.

‘‘The reality is to complete this project, we have to confront an unpalatable $37.1 million, and we just need to lay out the facts to you and to the public very clearly so that everybody understands the reasons for that,’’

McKerrow said during a briefing to councillors.

When the budget for the project was approved in 2019, there were risks involved that weren’t yet known, including the full extent of the condition of the building, McKerrow said.

Within the budget was a contingency sum to address any risks that may arise, and this was revealed for the first time yesterday as $24.3m. Nearly all the contingency budget has already been spent, the majority of which funded ground conditions and piling and temporary works to stabilise the building during the project.

During a media tour of the building yesterday, Naylor Love site manager Matt Turnbull said until the work had begun, some challenges the project had faced, including issues discovered from previous renovations, couldn’t have been anticipated earlier.

That, coupled with a range of issues related to the pandemic, including escalating costs due to supply chain pressures, scarcity of construction resources, and continued disruptions caused by lockdowns and restrictions under the various Covid alert levels, had contributed to delays and increased costs, McKerrow said.

The project involves lifting and propping the building to install new base isolators – flexible pads that reduce shaking in an earthquake – and extensive deep piling. More than 160 base isolators – that will allow the building to shift between 150 and 400mm in the event of an earthquake – are being installed, set below new ground beams and concrete floors.

The construction completion date is now September 2024, an extension of 16 months from the original date of May 2023. It is expected the building will reopen in the first quarter of 2025.

The building would be a ‘‘world-class musical and recording venue with improved rehearsal and performance space, with outstanding acoustics and orchestral recording facilities’’, McKerrow said.

It will also be a base for civic and community events and part of a centre of musical excellence for the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra and home to Victoria University of Wellington’s New Zealand School of Music Te Kōkı¯.

‘‘The Town Hall is an iconic building which has been at the heart of the city for almost 120 years,’’ McKerrow said. ‘‘You can only really understand the complexity of the undertaking when you see the sheer scale of the operation. We are effectively deconstructing and reconstructing a 120-year-old masonry building on reclaimed land.’’