Chlöe Swarbrick urges mayor not to hold up restoration of Auckland’s St James Theatre

Friday, 6 December 2024

The government and Auckland Council have committed $15 million each to the restoration of the St James Theatre.

But the project is being held up by the need for papers to be discussed by Auckland Council’s Governing Body.

Swarbrick has called on the mayor to end years of delays over the future of the iconic venue.

Auckland Central MP and Green Party co-leader Chlöe Swarbrick has called on Auckland Mayor Wayne Brown to end years of delays over St James Theatre.

Swarbrick has written to Brown urging him to put the future of the St James Theatre on the agenda for Thursday’s Governing Body council meeting, so that building work can finally go ahead.

The iconic theatre, which is recognised as a Category 1 Historic Place by Heritage New Zealand, was damaged during a fire in a neighbouring building in 2007.

It briefly reopened in 2015 before another fire, this time involving faulty electrics, damaged the stalls.

The building was not insured and has been largely abandoned since.

Auckland Council had previously said it would contribute $15 million towards its redevelopment, and the previous Labour Government had agreed to match that.

The drafted papers were done to allow this work to go ahead, but Swarbrick says progress is now being held up by Brown seeking further advice.

“People will be aware that the campaign to save the St James has been ongoing for about a decade now, and involved the public backing of political heavyweights, the likes of the late great Nikki Kaye and the right honourable Jacinda Ardern,” Swarbrick told Stuff.

“When I came into the role as Auckland Central MP, it was identified clearly by my community as one of the key things that they wanted me to campaign and to advocate for.

“After about four years’ worth of a community grassroots campaign, we managed at the end of last year to get confirmation for government funding of $15 million to match the commitment that was made by Mayor Len Brown in 2016.

“When there was a change of government, I did everything I could to seek assurances that the new government was not going to try anything or to pull that funding.”

Swarbrick believed everything was lined up for a re-commitment of that funding by the new Crown ministers under the new government, but she says there was an intervention by the mayor to stop that from happening.

“What that meant is that council officials ended up getting cold feet and were not able to progress signing off of the deal with the Ministry of Arts, Culture and Heritage, to get this funding out the door, to get contracts signed and get diggers in the ground,” she said.

“We are currently in a state of limbo, which has been brought about because, as I understand it, the mayor has commissioned more advice from council officials, and that we have seen consistent delays of that advice and that information going back to the governing body.”

Swarbrick says that money is lost every day the project is delayed further.

“Just on a basic calculation on RBNZ's inflation calculator, the $30m which we managed to get committed after years of community campaigning at the end of 2023, as a result of inflation that's now worth around $0.5m less due to just that inflation,” she said.

“That's not taking into account the other challenges around getting contracts signed and otherwise for procuring the work actually to do the fixing up of the St James Theatre.”

Brown’s office was approached for comment and gave the following statement: “The mayor has asked officials for more information and is awaiting further advice. It would be inappropriate for him to comment at this time.”

Council officials have told Stuff a decision would be made on Monday whether to include St James on the agenda for Thursday’s Governing Body meeting, but councillor Chris Darby, who has been an advocate for restoring St James, says he’s already been informed it won’t be included.

“I was just told a couple of days ago it wouldn't be appearing,” Darby said.

“Yep, I'm disappointed. I've been chasing this. I think Aucklanders want to get this resolved as well,” Darby said.

“It's a blight on the streetscape in the mid block there. It's an absolute mess.

“I want to resolve that mess. I want to see a great place outcome there, a great cultural facility.

“The mayor wants to see a great cultural facility and he wants to see a resolution on the commercial development site on the northern boundary as well. That is my understanding.”

Darby has been asking for months for St James to be in the agenda at a Governing Body meeting and is confident that once it is, the green light will be given for work to go ahead.

“I'm not despondent, I remain optimistic we'll resolve it,” he said.

“Resolving it in December or resolving it in February, I asked what does that mean? And my understanding is, it doesn't really mean a lot.”

Fellow councillor Richard Hills said he was unsure why there had been this holdup.

“I had discussed over a year ago with Chlöe and the mayor about protecting the funding for St James,” Hills said.

“It would be good to know what has changed, because if it's ready to go and the government funding is still secured, then I think Aucklanders would want us to continue with the project.”

Hills said transforming St James was crucial to improving an area of the city centre.

“We need to open up and make that part of Queen Street more vibrant and brighter,” he said.

“Midtown is looking unloved and the St James sitting idle is part of that.

“We need to have that part of Midtown upgraded, and both the Sky World and St James sitting across from each other largely empty, hampers those efforts.”

Swarbrick says she has not received a response to her letter from the mayor.