The final cost of the new council building (“Te Iwitahi”) in Rust Avenue is $61 million. Of this, $7.6m was paid to consultants.
When the building was first proposed in June 2018 the projected cost was $37 million. A year later that had increased to $38 million.
By February 2020 the estimate had grown to $48 million and the size had increased from 5500 square metres to 7000 square metres to accommodate up to 470 staff, including space to be leased to NZ Transport Agency Waka Kotahi on commercial terms.
By April 2021 the budget had increased to $55 million. That rose again to $59 million in June 2022.
As of June 2023, the WDC had 400 full-time equivalent employees, and NZ Transport Agency Waka Kotahi has not relocated to the new building. Clearly, the council had not entered into a formal lease arrangement with NZTA when the decision was made to increase the size of the building.
Based on those numbers, there is estimated to be between 1000 and 1500 square metres of unused or under-utilised space in the building.
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