Future of council buildings looked at in light of merger

The North Shore City Council's headquarters is undergoing a $20m extension. Photo / Greg Bowker

A number of Auckland councils are considering the future of the buildings housing their headquarters in the light of a merger into a Super City authority.

They are in the hands of the Auckland Transition Agency which has the job of restructuring Auckland's eight councils, 6300 staff and $28 billion of assets into a single entity by October 31 next year.

On the civic chambers front, North Shore City Council is the most concerned.

A $20 million extension is under way to its rented Takapuna headquarters overlooking Takapuna Beach.

Uncertainty about their future has prompted Franklin and Papakura District Councils to pull the plug on building plans. Manukau City has $12.4 million set aside in its draft long-term plan to start in 2011 on refurbishing Kotuku House, its customer service building in the Manukau City Centre. But the final decision on going ahead with this will be made by the new Auckland Council.

Manukau recently completed a major refurbishment of its Wiri high-rise civic centre as part of a $21.35 million revamp programme for that building and five floors in five other buildings in the city centre. Two other councils have finished building programmes planned years ago to meet staff accommodation needs and to lead investment.

Waitakere City staff are housed in a new $39 million "green" showpiece civic building in the centre of Henderson, next to the railway station.

Rodney District council moved into a new $13 million extension at Orewa last year.

North Shore City approved in December 2006 a lease of a 4000sq m annexe to be built by the landlord of its civic building.

The council took a 12-year lease on the entire building with two further rights of three-year renewals.

The aim is to bring together 700 staff from three Takapuna offices into the one central location of 12,000sq m - giving the public a one-stop-shop.

About $4 million for the new building's fitout is in the council's 2009 budget.

"We are committed to the move and all we can do is get guidance from the Transitional Agency as to how they see the future," said council chief financial officer Dale Lott.

The existing old and new buildings are owned by Ian Wills and Andrew Holiday. "This is the first crane for a commercial building in Takapuna for 15 years," said Mr Holiday, who added that the four-storey building would have exquisite sea views.

"People won't want to go into the city to pay their rates."