Whangarei firm Trigg Construction to build Hundertwasser Arts Centre

Economic Development Minister Shane Jones and Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters remove the first bricks from the old NRC building ahead of work starting on the Hundertwasser Arts Centre next week.

Work will start on Whangārei's Hundertwasser Art Centre with Wairau Māori Art Gallery soon after Northland firm Trigg Construction was chosen as the firm to build the $26 million project.

It's a double dose of good news for the trust behind the centre, following yesterday's announcement by Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern in Whangārei that the Government was giving the project another $6.9m, taking total Government funding to almost $10m.

Now, 25 years after he was asked to design an art centre for Whangārei, construction of Friedensreich Hundertwasser's project for the old Harbour Board and Northland Regional Council building at the Town Basin is finally set to begin on June 11, Whangārei Art Museum Trust Chairman Grant Faber said.

Today the contract with Trigg Construction was announced at the Town Basin, metres from where the centre will be built, with Faber saying much of the building where the centre will be built will be recycled.

The event to launch the news was attended by around 200 people at the iSite just metres from the building site. It was attended by a host of local and national politicians, including Economic Development Minister Shane Jones, and Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters, Whangārei Mayor Sheryl Mai and Northland Regional Council Chair Bill Shepherd. There were also three former Whangārei mayors, Stan Semenoff, Morris Cutforth and Pamela Peters.

"Work will start on June 11. This is the big news supporters have been waiting for since June last year. So much complex work needed to be completed; design finalisation, peer reviewing, consents, tendering, contracts, operational planning. There have been times we thought we might not get here, so it feels unbelievably good to finally be underway," Faber said.

He said as a result of a nationwide tendering process, Whangārei-based commercial building company Trigg Construction has been appointed as the lead contractor for the 27-month build.

"It is an absolute honour and a real privilege to have been entrusted to build a project that means so much for Whangārei and all of Northland," Trigg Construction Managing Director Darrell Trigg .

"No one in New Zealand has ever built anything even remotely like the Hundertwasser Art Centre, so it's going to be an exciting challenge and a career highlight for our local contractors.''

Project management will be the responsibility of Griffiths & Associates, another Whangārei business, which also took the lead during the design and procurement process. Local firm HB Architects has been working on the project since 2011 and will ensure the final building meets their detailed plans, approved and overseen by the Vienna-based Hundertwasser Non Profit Foundation.

Faber said the first signs of activity will be fences going up around the old Harbour Board building.

"Straight away a team of volunteers will move in and take material from the old building for eventual re-use in the new centre" Faber said.

"The Old Army Drill Hall on the corner of Walton/Robert Sts is now the project's recycling centre, where we'll be storing, sorting and refurbishing material for the art centre from the old building and around New Zealand."

He said volunteers remain an integral part of the project, which only got to this point because of immense community spirit.

''Annually, the centre will attract over 202,000 visitors and bring $26.5 million in net economic benefit. It will also help create over 60 full time equivalent jobs during the two-year Construction period" Jones said.

An updated economic impact report, from Northland's Regional Economic Development Agency Northland Inc, estimates Construction activity of the centre will generate $49 million for the region. The project has now fully-funded the contracted Construction price and met over 70 per cent of fit-out and pre-opening costs.

"We still have a portion to fundraise during the Construction phase ($1.3 million), but we're now 100 per cent confident we can start building knowing we'll be opening New Zealand's most exciting new building before the end of 2020," Faber said.