Invercargill City Council is set to move out of its building at 101 Esk St and into a temporary home within Invercargill Central and the adjacent HWR building.

The temporary relocation, which was approved by elected members in August, is part of Council’s project to address the ageing Te Hīnaki Civic Building and will see around 240 staff shifted into new premises for about five years.

Council Chief Executive Michael Day said the current Te Hīnaki Civic Building, which was more than 50 years old, had a number of elements approaching end-of-life and significant investment was needed to upgrade the building.

“In 2021, elected members agreed that a $15 million upgrade of the Council’s civic administration building was urgently needed as the building was long overdue refurbishment,” Day said.

“Over the past four years, staff and elected members have been in discussions around the future of Te Hīnaki Civic Building and a range of alternatives have been thoroughly explored.

“Through this work, it has become clear that it is more economical for us to exit the building, as to meet our needs the building requires significant investment and works to refurbish the interior, complete renewals, replace historical building services, and ensure the building is weathertight.”

Day said it had been a challenging project to try and strike the right balance between the fiscal, technical and operational needs of the Council and its staff.

As part of the 2024-2034 Long-term Plan, Council resolved to include $21 million in capital expenditure on Te Hīnaki and a portion of these funds would be used for the relocation and fit out.

“Elected members were very clear that this relocation needed to be cost-neutral, ensuring it did not have any direct impact on ratepayers and, while the cost of the move is still being worked through, I’m pleased to confirm that our high-level estimates show we will be able to achieve this over the full term of the lease,” Day said.

Mayor Nobby Clark said Council supported the temporary relocation due to the poor condition of the current building.

“Parts of the current Te Hīnaki Civic Building are well past their expiration date and it would be foolish for elected members and Council to spend millions of dollars refurbishing and renovating this space when we are still considering options for the site.

“I had hoped that we could be looking at some form of shared building with our other Council partners, but this conversation is still in progress, so in the interests of our staff we need to continue on.”

Council was now working on a plan for the move, which was expected to start before the end of the year as each of the spaces became available and would take about 12 months to complete, Day said.

“More than 240 staff currently work out of Te Hīnaki and we’re pleased to be able to provide them with a temporary workplace that is safe and modern where they can continue to serve our community during this stage of the project.”

The Council Chambers will remain at the Civic Theatre for the duration of the temporary shift and the new temporary location for customer-facing services is not yet confirmed.

While the move was only temporary, the future possible options for Te Hīnaki was set to be presented to Councillors this month, although any long-term solution for Council accommodation was expected to take between four and six years to be completed, Day said.

More information will be available on the move in the coming months.