Plan for city’s ‘civic heart’ takes shape

Thursday, 11 April 2024

An artist's impression of the new civic building that will replace the civic administration building and municipal office building in Te Ngākau Civic Square.

What’s hoped will become “the beating heart of the city” is taking shape, with a property developer selected to replace the council’s old office buildings in Te Ngākau Civic Square .

Precinct Properties – known for Commercial Bay and Wynyard Quarter in Auckland and the new Willis Lane food court and Bowen Campus in Wellington – has been selected as the leading tenderer for the site, councillors were told this afternoon.

Te Ngākau Civic Square has been hit with a series of earthquake prone assessments over the past decade. The Town Hall, Central Library, Michael Fowler Centre, Municipal Office Building, City Gallery, Civic Administration Building, former Capital E Building, City to Sea Bridge and the basement under the square are all earthquake prone.

Some structures, like the Town Hall, are in the process of redevelopment; others, like the City to Sea Bridge, will probably be demolished.

The municipal office building (left) and civic administration building (red building on the right) will be demolished and replaced with a new development by Precinct Properties.

The council voted last year to demolish the municipal office building and civic administration building – traditionally the council’s office space - and replace them with a new building.

Mayor Tory Whanau said in a statement the news was “a huge step forward in our collective work to restore the civic heart of the city”.

Selecting a private developer for the site meant the council could avoid the cost and risk of redevelopment – “which we know can be challenging from our experiences with the Town Hall”, Whanau said.

Councillor Iona Pannett said based on the artist’s impressions she did not think the building was good enough for the space, but was told that the design was preliminary at this point.

“This will become the beating heart of the city again,” said chief operating officer James Roberts in the briefing to councillors.

The new building would have public spaces on the ground floor and first floor, but the details were still being confirmed. The council would be able to influence those spaces in its negotiations with Precinct Properties, Roberts said.

He expected there would be hospitality businesses and a co-working space. Precinct was still deciding whether the upper floors would be commercial office space or a hotel.

The council’s hope that a new building on the site could be reopened by 2027, providing the toilets and hospitality space which the Town Hall needs, was not possible according to the tenders they received for the empty site.

One of the latest artist's impressions of what the city's Te Matapihi Central Library will look like when redevelopment is complete in mid-2026.

“The conclusion we have come to as a team is that it is just not feasible,” Roberts said. Instead staff were looking at how the existing space in the Michael Fowler Centre could be used for those functions in the Town Hall.

The team was focused on keeping Town Hall costs low, Roberts said. “The objective is to bring budget back and we’re working hard on that.”

Victoria University of Wellington had signed on to the library redevelopment, agreeing to take space on the third and fourth floors.

Another building in Civic Square, the City Gallery, will have to close for earthquake strengthening in 2025. The New Building Standard rating is just 20% because of brickwork in the internal walls.

Farzad Zamani, Te Ngākau programme manager, said the strengthening would be a relatively straightforward process of replacing masonry walls.

Zamani also said that improving green space in the square was being worked through, and would come back to council as part of a proposal for a larger redevelopment of the space in June – which was also where details like the demolition of the City to Sea Bridge would appear.

Councillors will decide whether to enter negotiations with Precinct Properties at a meeting on Thursday next week.

Years of construction ahead for Civic Square

2024: The council plans to demolish the civic administration building in July. Meanwhile construction continues on both the Town Hall and Te Matapihi Central Library.

2025: The municipal office building will be demolished, and the City Gallery will close for earthquake strengthening. This will be the most construction-heavy year for Civic Square, with the Town Hall, Te Matapihi, office buildings replacement and City Gallery closed for work.

2026: Te Matapihi and City Gallery are expected to be reopened within the first three months of the year, while the Town Hall nears its final stages.

2027: The Town Hall is expected to be completed. Only the municipal and civic buildings replacement remains under construction.

2028: The Precinct Properties building to replace the municipal and civic buildings is expected to be complete.

2029: The earthquake strengthening deadline for Michael Fowler Centre (20% NBS), by which time it will either have to close down or be strengthened.