DHB building blowout
After delays and a budget blowout, a central Hamilton refurbishment has swerved past another hurdle.
Waikato District Health Board planned to move its CBD-based staffers and services into the refurbished Farmers building.
But two services will now stay where they are to avoid blowing the health board’s $14.7-million budget.
The project began under former chief executive Nigel Murray and staffers were initially expected to move to the corner of Anglesea and Collingwood streets at the end of 2017.
The original $7.7m refit budget was almost doubled in July 2017.
And costs could have climbed to at least $23m if two services – diabetes and adult mental health – hadn’t been moved out of the plan after a closeddoors board meeting in August 2018.
‘‘We wanted to take stock and what I wasn’t keen to do was to put more money into this,’’ interim chief executive Derek Wright said.
Construction costs were rising, and diabetes and mental health services – a planned major tenant – were considering moving away from a centralised model, he said.
The building would now lean more towards an administration hub than a clinical one, Wright said.
‘‘It’s a change, but it’s still going to fulfil a lot of the needs that were identified.’’
The new arrangement still allows savings; for example, by letting go of a lease in the nearby KPMG tower, and potentially subletting extra space in the building.
About 700 staff are expected to move into the CBD building from August 2019.
Board member Dave Macpherson said the project had been ‘‘poorly handled from the start and we’ve been scrambling to catch up’’.
‘‘It’s a terrible example of public sector not doing the sums before it gets approval to go ahead.’’
Macpherson joined the board partway through the project.
Some cost increases were unforeseeable, Wright said, such as health and safety requirements in the wake of the shootings at an Ashburton Work and Income office.
Board chair Sally Webb said members were assured the building could be completed for $14.7m. It was ‘‘not unacceptable’’ for community services such as mental health and diabetes to look for other locations because of a push to have them delivered closer to people’s homes.