The start of a new era after eight years of turmoil for the focal point of performing arts and civic events in Hastings has been celebrated with a weekend of events to mark the opening of the Hastings Municipal Building.
Part of the rebranded Toitoi Hawke's Bay Arts and Events Centre, the building and adjacent Opera House were shut down suddenly in 2014 after failing to meet building standards as ageing structures throughout the country were put under the microscope following the Canterbury earthquakes of 2010 and 2011, which attracted over 650,000 insurance claims and became globally one of the biggest-ever insurance costs.
It left the Hastings District Council with decisions to make over whether to demolish buildings which had dominated the eastern end of the CBD and the sector of Hasting St between Heretaunga St East and Eastbourne St East for the last century.
Originally opened in 1915, the Opera House was extensively damaged in the 1931 Hawke's Bay Earthquake but survived with major repairs and then major restoration in the 1990s, followed by the latest closure of six years before it reopened in 2020.
