9 August 2017

Media: Rotorua Daily Post

Topic: Civic Centre refurbishment

Inquiry

please refer to the following agenda item: Agenda, O&M, August 3, pg 17.

Civic Centre refurbishment

Around 60 staff from the Civic Centre have moved into the recently completed transitional office space at the Sportsdrome. They are expected to remain there for about 12 months whilst the first stage of the Civic Centre refurbishment works are completed. Stage 1 started in the Civic Building towards the end of last month and due to the need for business continuity, will be staged to be completed in about 12 months.

Could you please respond to the following questions:

- What does the Civic Centre refurbishment entail? (What is being done?)

- How many stages are involved?

- How long will the entire job take?

- How much will it cost? What is the total budget for the refurbishment?

- Who is being moved into the Sportsdrome?

- How long will they be there?

- Does this mean the Sportsdrome is not available for use for other organisations?

- If so, how many groups have been affected? (Roller derby and basketball are big users of the venue.)

- How much revenue will be lost from the Sportsdrome being out of action (if it's out of action).

Response

Chief Financial Officer Thomas Colle (who is in charge of the property team which is leading the Civic Centre renewal):

Renewal of the Civic Centre was approved in the 2015-25 Long-term Plan with $3.9m allocated in total and the project expected to take up to six years. Now 30 years old, the building is in need of renewal, including building infrastructure such as air conditioning and services like data wiring which is now obsolete.

The work will incorporate establishing a fit-for-purpose emergency operations centre, as required in all cities following the major earthquakes in New Zealand in recent years.

The Civic Centre project is being completed in three stages and we are still in the first stage. The work started late last year with roof repairs, a re-fit of public toilets in the customer centre and re-tiling of part of the ground floor (public area), moving to a refit of staff toilets early this year.

Work on a portion of ground floor office space is now starting and Council's infrastructure team have moved to what was previously the conference room area at the Sportsdrome. They will be located there for about a year before moving back into the Civic Centre and the Sportsdrome space will then be occupied by other staff to enable the next stage of the renewal to proceed.

The conference room at the Sportsdrome was hardly used as it was also in need of renewal and it will be available for community use again when no longer needed for staff.

The main part of the Sportsdrome is still available for and being used by the community.