Council eyes purchase of netball hub

The home of Christchurch netball will become a multicultural centre – if a sale price can be agreed upon.

Christchurch City Council decided last week to buy the Christchurch Netball Centre building, car park and courts in Hagley Park.

The exact sale price has not been disclosed after being discussed in the publicly excluded part of the meeting.

Netball plans to move into a new $20 million indoor venue being built for it and Futsal (a version of indoor football) at Nga¯ Puna Wai sports hub.

An independent valuation, sought by the council, put the netball centre’s market value at $5.5m, but council staff said that was only if the building was retained as a netball centre and was irrelevant because there was no other netball entity that would want to buy it.

An ‘‘exit’’ value of $3.2m was also provided, which assumed there was no other netball entity big enough to take on the purposebuilt facility.

Community support, governance and partnerships head John Filsell said the council’s maximum purchase price was slightly below the lower valuation.

The offer did not reflect any scepticism on the value of the building, but it was about what the council had to spend and its inability to access any funding from a third party, he said.

The council has $3m set aside in its budget for a multicultural centre.

Christchurch Netball Centre board chairwoman Anna Galvan said the council’s decision was a step in the process, but ‘‘with any sale and purchase there was a lot of water to go under the bridge yet’’.

She said turning the building into a multicultural centre was a ‘‘real win-win’’ for the community and was something the city desperately needed.