Southland museum needs $6m boost

A $6 million funding boost for the new Southland museum is on the cards – possibly from third-party sources but if necessary from Invercargill ratepayers.

The increase would raise the cost of the entire Project 1225 – the museum and tuatarium at Queen’s Park, and the Tisbury storage facility – to $71.5 million.

Should the Invercargill City Council accept the recommendation from the project team to raise the budget, the extra money would first be sought from sources outside the council.

It is already seeking $11m from those sources. That target would increase to $17m.

To date, $5m has been raised externally.

Any shortfall is to be underwritten by the council.

Each unmet $1m from the external funding target would add 0.082% a year to rates – so coming up short by the full $6m would add 0.49%. For $3m it would be 0.246%

A report for next Tuesday’s council meeting from programme director Lee Butcher says the higher construction budget for the museum build is needed for the key reasons of inflated building costs of building to “higher amenity and quality” standard, and the post-Covid impacts on resourcing, cost of living and supply chain issues.

Throughout the process the project team has “robustly challenged” the design team through several iterations for the museum design, the draft for which was released this week.

The report does not recommend public consultation on the proposed increase to the budget.

That is on the grounds that the change still aligns with the messages received when the council last sought feedback.

The heightened costs remained below the budget consulted upon, which had been for a larger museum than the eventual 3728 square metre design.

“The community have voiced their desire for the museum to be open as soon as possible,’’ Butcher said.

Councillors on Tuesday will consider a recommendation to endorse the “intent, scale and cost’’ of the 1225 project.

They will also be asked to confirm the museum’s name – either Te Unua Museum of Southland or Te Unua Southland Museum.

Te Unua was the name proposed by mana whenua and gifted by Waihōpai Rūnaka​ and Te Rūnanga​ o Awarua .

It refers to a double-hulled voyaging waka.

The Rūnaka Rūnanga have not proposed the name Murihiku, preferring Southland.

That was because the boundaries of Murihiku were different, extending to the lower banks of the Waitaki in North Otago, which meant Murihiku overlapped with other regional and lower South Island hapū.