Council says Civic Building Work is Vital
The Kāpiti Coast District Council says the roof will be next to go in the controversial rebuild of the Civic HQ.
And in an effort to rebut criticism from the public, the Council says the refurbished building is the best of several options — and also contains vital anti-quake sections.
Community Services Manager Tamsin Evans says all the exterior walls have now gone and the existing roof will be removed shortly.
Ms Evans says: “The demolition work is almost finished, but it will take a further two weeks for the debris to be cleared. Once this is done, the transformer on the north side of the building will be relocated so excavation work for the foundations for the north wall extension can begin.”
Some ‘taken by surprise’
Ms Evans said the stripping out of the old building down to the uprights and floor slabs had probably taken some by surprise.
“The extent of this work was always planned and was discussed at length at Council, but I guess there is a difference between seeing something on paper and the reality on the ground,” she says.
“The Civic Building was originally designed for commercial purposes and fell short of current seismic requirements. “As part of the upgrade, ‘K’ braces will be installed to bring the building frame up to modern design specifications. The type of bracing can be seen on many of the older style of buildings in Wellington City that have been retro-fitted to meet modern design standards.”
Ms Evans said a number of building options were looked at by Council before it decided on the current upgrade. These included erecting a new building on the site, having new premises built elsewhere, leasing a new building, or variations of the same.
New building cost put at $14 million
“We specifically asked The Building Intelligence Group (TBIG) to review estimates prepared to fully replace the Civic Building and they came back and confirmed that a new building built to our specifications would cost just under $14 million.
“I am aware there was an offer to provide a new two storey building in Ihakara Street, but this was some distance from the Town Centre and the estimate did not include a range of other costs including purchase of the land, building fit out, IT work, design fees, project management costs, resource consent fees and cost of Council moving.”
Ms Evans says Council places considerable importance on providing facilities that are easy to access, are close to where people do business, while at the same time add to the development of a Town Centre that future citizens will be proud of.”
The value of the construction contract for the Civic Building is $5.5 million. On top of this is a contingency element, the cost of the temporary move to Lindale, IT work, design fees, project management costs, resource consent costs, the fit out and the move back in.
- Attached is an artist’s impression of the upgraded Civic Building will look like.
So Ms Evans confirms all we will have left of the building is the concrete slab floor and some upright pillars…….certainly NOT what people would expect of an “upgrade and refurbishment.” Her response only serves to raise further questions:
“The Civic Building was originally designed for commercial purposes” – so, isn’t that it was still used for?
“The type of bracing can be seen on many of the older style of buildings in Wellington City that have been retro-fitted to meet modern design standards.” – yes, retro-fitted and upgraded not gutted and rebuilt. And most of these buildings remained operative whilst the work was being undertaken and staff worked around it (they did not have the luxury of being relocated whilst work was being carried out – I know, I worked in one!).
The options of building a new building on another site would have meant KCDC (ratepayer) would have had the value of the current building AS WELL AS the new building. The old building could have been sold or leased to offset the cost.
Did KCDC bother to obtain costing information from Kapiti contractors in respect of a new building option, or did they rely solely on the advice of TBIG? Surely another monumental management failing……………………