Arts Centre of Christchurch restoration is $40m under budget but still faces shortfall
Monday, 28 January 2019
Restoring the Arts Centre of Christchurch will cost $40 million less than first thought, going against the city's rebuild norm of blown budgets.
Initially forecast at $290m, the final bill to repair and strengthen the damaged neo-Gothic complex is now expected to be $250m.
Despite the reduced cost, the Arts Centre is relying on an $163m insurance payout and grants plus fundraising and still needs to find another $30m for the project.
Work on the complex's 21 category-one heritage buildings is two-thirds done, and the second stage is now under way. This second stage will involve restoring the four engineering buildings over several years, depending on funds.
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The complex, built as the city's original university campus, has 23 buildings in total.
Restored and reoccupied buildings include the old Boys' High, clock tower, Rutherford's Den, Great Hall, registry, old library, common room, old gym, workshop, library, classics and chemistry buildings.
Tenants range from food shops and cafes to galleries, shops, artisan outlets, Canterbury University's classics and music departments, and the city's i-SITE tourist information centre.
Chief executive Philip Aldridge attributed the cost efficiencies to a good board and management, the Arts Centre's independence, and its in-house rebuild team.
'I can say that because I haven't been here all along,' said Aldridge, who took over the top job in July from Andre Lovatt.
Aldridge said because they were a charitable trust and 'not constrained by being under the umbrella of local government', decision making was easier.
Despite losing an annual city council operating grant of $800,000, progress at the Arts Centre had 'been a great success story', he said.
Annual visitor numbers have jumped 30 per cent to 650,000 in the past year but remain short of the 1.1 million before the earthquakes.
Most restored buildings are tenanted and the complex brings in $5m a year in revenue.
'We're not publicly funded, we must bring in all our own revenue,' Aldridge said.
He said they were 'more focussed on running events' than before the quakes. Activities including the weekly Sunday market, buskers festival, Matariki celebrations and outdoor cinema brought in members of the public who then discovered other things at the site.
The centre's tenant mix covered a wider spectrum than before the earthquakes and had a more commercial focus, he said.
'Ideally we want to make it available to as many people as possible. The problem is that us we need to pay the bills, so we have to make a buck where we can.'
Next open will be the Lumiere double-screen cinemas and bar, scheduled to begin screenings in the west lecture building at Easter. The old arts buildings next door will house creative spaces and four apartments, which are finished and waiting to be occupied by artists in residence.
Fitting out the biology and physics buildings for the $29m new boutique hotel will take until 2022, and a fundraising campaign to restore the adjacent observatory is under way now.
The engineering buildings when restored will include a conference centre for the hotel, while other spaces including the old Court Theatre are likely to include galleries, performance and exhibition spaces, studios and offices. A repair schedule for the block is being worked on now.
The former Student Union building, which housed the Dux de Lux restaurant and bar before the earthquakes, is considered lower priority and will not be fixed until all the category one buildings are done, Aldridge said. Former Dux de Lux operator Richard Sinke now runs the Terrace Tavern, Dux Central and Dux Dine outlets in the city.