Calvin Questions Town Hall Business Plan

A letter from Calvin Oaten to Dscene:

I have read the report by senior manager Kate Styles to councillors on the proposed town hall/conference centre upgrade.
I was not so so much impressed by what it enclosed as by what it did not. It was in effect a synopsis of the more elaborate presentation by the architect consultants Opus Ltd. Ms Styles twice mentions her business case in support of the project. What business case? We don’t know, because she does not elaborate on it. I doubted there was one until I read the latest LTCCP.
It is planned to refurbish the town hall in conjunction with expanding and fitting out the concert chamber and parts of the municipal building in order to
create an international standard conference centre.
The idea was floated at a cost of $14m. It then developed with the controversial Harrop St "glass clip-on", at a revised price of $18.5m. Later it became $29.2m, but at the same time strong opposition over the clip-on brought about a rethink, resulting in a revised design developed more within the building
footprint. However, the estimate of capital, plus costs, are now $51.245m.
Annual expenditure in operating the centre is shown as ranging from $1.679m in 2009/10 to $1.974m in 2011/12, by which time the planned development will be complete. The operating costs then take an incremental leap to $6.727m in 2012/13 and remaining at this} level through the remainder of the LTCCP.
When the cost was at $18.5m, former manager Peter Brown claimed there would be at least an additional six conferences per year for Dunedin, with an expected
economic benefit to the city of around $3m per year. When the project cost moved to $29.2m, Ms Styles said there would be an increase of 16 conferences per year prov1ding an economic benefit of some $16m.
Now that the cost is over $50m, will she explain her business case, explaining how many extra conferences she now plans for, and the empirical evidence to
substantiate her projections?
What would be the the economic benefits now accruing, bearing in mind the huge increase in debt servicing and operating costs being imposed on the ratepayers?

Calvin Oaten,
Pine Hill