‘Joint facility’ plan now off the table
Long-held plans for a $206 million research facility at Lincoln University in Canterbury have been scrapped.
The university is heading back to the drawing board after a decision that AgResearch, its partner in the beleaguered project, will build its own facility on Lincoln’s campus.
Lincoln University may then build a separate research centre, the feasibility of which its council will consider in coming months.
The parties chose a new path forward after a third business case to Government seeking $85m in funding was rejected in December.
Education Minister Chris Hipkins said that money remained available if Lincoln can provide a complete business case detailing the project’s price tag, main contractor and delivery plan in accordance with Treasury guidelines.
While Lincoln has some funds to pursue a capital works programme, ‘‘the joint facility as currently designed cannot be built without Crown contribution’’, a statement from acting vicechancellor Bruce McKenzie said.
‘‘The vision for a collaborative Lincoln precinct remains a priority for Lincoln University and AgResearch and both parties will continue to work closely together to realise the benefits of the joint facility project.’’
The joint facility, which was considered central to Lincoln’s future and financial sustainability, would have been the largest agricultural research centre in the southern hemisphere, housing up to 900 scientists from Crown Research Institutes including Landcare Research, Plant & Food Research and DairyNZ.
Yesterday, AgResearch chief executive Tom Richardson said he hoped more tenants, who may previously have been unsure about the facility’s future, would sign on to an AgResearch-owned build.
Its design and cost may change after AgResearch’s board receives a more detailed proposal in June, but Richardson said early plans are for a 7000 square metre centre costing up to $100m.
AgResearch’s interest was in developing a science and innovation precinct in Lincoln rather than a single, jointly-owned building, he said.
‘‘For us, the project we started in 2013 was to develop the whole precinct. We need square meterage to meet our needs, yesterday.
‘‘The [joint facility] business case, we were fully committed to – if it had been approved. It was worth doing but it didn’t materialise.’’
Groundworks for the 27,000 square metre joint facility were completed in August, 2017, but work ground to a halt when Lincoln and AgResearch couldn’t find a contractor to meet their price tag.
The parties put the contract back out to tender in April last year to the frustration of Hipkins, who was informed of the delay in submitting a second business case just three days before its March 18 deadline.
A preferred contractor was identified in September but that arrangement will now have to be revised.
Richardson said he hoped the delay in completing AgResearch’s facility would not be significant – the first part of the joint facility was expected to be finished by the end of 2020.
When both AgResearch and Lincoln were eyeing major construction projects in 2015, ‘‘we said ‘let’s explore whether we put one facility in that location’,’’ he said.
Now it made more sense to return to their original 2016 plan: a shared vision in separate buildings.
‘‘Without that [$85m] investment coming through . . . we and Lincoln both felt we needed to move,’’ Richardson said.