Wellington convention centre at crossroads
A scaled down Wellington convention centre is an option – if city councillors even decide to go ahead with the project at all.
Councillors will make a final decision about the project at the end of the year. If it gets the green light, the city could also be in store for major touring exhibitions such as Harry Potter, Game Of Thrones or Star Wars.
In August, Sir Peter Jackson and Wellington City Council jointly announced the ‘‘mutuallyagreed parting of the ways’’ for a joint movie museum and convention centre, which was revealed in 2015 and was set to cost $180 million.
The council said it planned to move forward with the convention centre on Cable St, replacing the movie museum with a 1500-square metre exhibition space that would be run in partnership with Te Papa. Yesterday, the council’s economic and commercial manager, Danny McComb, said it was now circling back and looking at the need for a convention centre in the city. A process was under way to complete the preliminary design for the building and costs around that. He expected the economics would be similar to the movie museum projections but expected the overall cost, with a smaller building, would be cheaper. Wellington Mayor Justin Lester said councillors had asked to see a business case to make a ‘‘stop-go’’ decision.
He was a ‘‘strong supporter’’ of the project and expected the council would likely ‘‘soldier on’’ with it but it needed to be justified.
It needed the backing of councillors and five of them were new and did not have the chance to vote on the previous decision.
The council had consulted the public numerous times about the project and he wanted to ensure support still existed, he said.
‘‘I have a strong sense there is [still] support for the project but I want to make sure there is support from the Wellington and business community and a case for why we need additional convention facilities in the city.’’
An independent economic business and strategic case would be presented in December for a ‘‘yes or no’’ decision.
McComb said the council would ‘‘either crack on with the project on that basis or at that point we will say thanks but no thanks, we have given it a shot’’.
If the project goes ahead, construction would be fast-tracked to start in July or August 2019.