Science Alive build budget cut by $20m
The budget for Science Alive’s new Christchurch home has been slashed from $25 million to about
$5m and the floor space cut by two thirds.
The new science and technology centre could be open in part of the former law court buildings on the corner of Armagh St and Durham St North by May, but will be much smaller than grand plans announced for the project in 2016.
Science Alive has been without a home since the 2011 Canterbury earthquakes destroyed its Moorhouse Ave headquarters. The notfor-profit group purchased the Durham St law courts site for $25m in January 2016 and announced plans to create a 5500-square-metre science centre in part of the complex and lease other parts.
The project has since been scaled back to a $5m, 1500sqm centre in the former law library building on the site. The centre hopes to sell the southern side of the law courts site, which includes the former magistrate’s building and a vacant lot.
The tower building on the site, which formerly housed law courts, will be strengthened as part of the
$5m project and leased to office tenants.
Work on the law library and tower building could begin in February and be complete by May.
A second phase of the project, including a function centre and a
100-seat, full-dome 3-D theatre for Science Alive, may be built on an empty part of the site in the future if the group can raise the $5m in construction costs. An existing building linking the library and the tower will be left empty, but could be developed for a possible third phase of expansion for the centre.
Science Alive’s investment company chief executive, Tony Mortensen, said the original proposal was not ‘‘economically viable’’.
‘‘A centre of that size based in Christchurch was not going to be economically viable and nor was it needed,’’ he said.
‘‘The original 5500 square metres was a lofty goal. It was not what would create a long term sustainable model for Christchurch.’’
The original plan was based on operating costs for the centre being subsidised by rent from the refurbished tower building, but rents had fallen since the plans were developed in 2015.
They had also discovered it would cost too much to make some parts of the tower building suitable for office rental. About 70 per cent of the 5000sqm tower would be up for lease once the initial work had been completed by May.
‘‘Some of those spaces are a little bit difficult to manipulate and need money spent on them to make them usable,’’ Mortensen said. ‘‘We want to make sure we are in a sustainable position . . . A significant amount of our capital went on purchasing the property.’’
He also said the global trend in science centres was for smaller and more interactive attractions.
‘‘This is stage one of what we believe could be many more stages,’’ he said.
‘‘We need to raise some capital, but as soon as we get the funding we will look to get the dome building up and running.’’
Building consents for work on the library and tower buildings have been lodged with the Christchurch City Council. ‘‘It will be really quite exciting to have the centre finally operating.’’
Mortensen said about three Science Alive galleries could be ready for the May opening, with each costing up to $1m each. He said they might be funded by sponsorship.
Science Alive chief executive Claire McGowan said the gallery plans were not finalised.
‘‘There are a lot of really good ideas and we are pulling those into the planning for the building and the site.
‘‘We have received expressions of interest for [sponsorship of] particular galleries.’’