Crown still owner of bus interchange
The Christchurch bus interchange remains in Government hands more than three years after it opened – despite long-held plans to transfer it to city council ownership.
It means the taxpayer is currently picking up the bill for the facility’s operating costs, which run into millions of dollars each year, and it is unclear when the transfer will be made.
The $53 million Governmentbuilt facility officially opened on October 29, 2015. It had already been in use for 156 days at the time.
In August 2017, the Christchurch City Council agreed to take over ownership of the building for $23m, as planned in the original 2013 cost-sharing agreement with the Crown.
The interchange is currently owned by Crown rebuild company O¯ ta¯ karo, which covered the building’s $1.47m operating costs for the 2018 financial year.
Another $1.4m of operating costs appears on the budget included in O¯ ta¯ karo’s Statement of Performance Expectations.
Discussions have been ongoing since at least mid-2017, when an O¯ ta¯ karo spokesman told The Press the company ‘‘continues to discuss the future ownership . . . with local authorities’’ but did not intend to be the longterm owner.
Why the transfer has taken so long is unclear, as is when it will go ahead.
Council strategy and transformation general manager Brendan Anstiss said the council had budgeted $23m for the bus interchange in each annual plan since the 2013 cost-sharing agreement was signed.
He said the interchange was ‘‘operating effectively at present’’.
The council was doing due diligence on the detailed operating costs and commercial arrangements, such as leases, on the basis ownership would be transferred ‘‘in due course’’, Anstiss said. Due diligence will not be finished until early 2019.
Operating costs have also been budgeted into the council’s annual plan.
An O¯ ta¯ karo spokesman said the company was assisting the council with due diligence on the value and operating cost of the interchange. It aimed to transfer the facility ‘‘at a time agreed by the Crown and council’’.
A spokesman for Greater Christchurch Regeneration Minister Megan Woods said the timing of the transfer depended on the Global Settlement negotiations.
The Global Settlement will lay out the Crown and the council’s responsibilities in the remaining earthquake recovery efforts in Christchurch. There is no timeframe for when these negotiations will be completed.
When asked why the transfer was taking so long, neither the council, O¯ ta¯ karo nor minister’s office answered.
O¯ ta¯ karo is selling an extra strip of land on Tuam St that was not needed for the interchange.
The spokesman said O¯ ta¯ karo has received about half a dozen requests for further information on the site.