Shovel-ready funds pitch

The University of Otago has made a pitch for shovel-ready funding for a planned $170 million, six-storey building in Christchurch. Given financial challenges caused by Covid-19, the project could be placed on hold or reassessed if government support does not eventuate. Stephen Willis, university chief operating officer, said a business case was recently approved, subject to affordability. The building, first announced in 2018, will be built on vacant land beside the Pegasus Arms pub on Oxford Tce. Once completed, the university planned to refurbish its existing eight-storey building on the Christchurch Hospital site.The new building will house nursing students, research groups, including those studying cancer, heart disease and mental heath conditions, and state-of-theart laboratories. The Christchurch campus has about 300 medical students, and more than 700 health-focused postgraduate students.