A blowout in the estimated cost to earthquake-strengthen the Hawke's Bay's Opera House means Hastings District Council faces tough decisions over its spending priorities for two other major developments in the city.
A consultant's report released yesterday has estimated the cost of bringing the 99-year-old Opera House and adjacent Municipal Building up to code - and reopened to the public - could be between $10.7 million and $21.7 million.
The figures were a shock to the council, which had budgeted $8.5 million for the strengthening work as it prepares its long-term budgets.
The council commissioned Holmes Consulting Group to investigate strengthening options for the buildings which have been closed since last year, when the earthquake risk was identified by engineers.
Before being reopened, the complex must be strengthened to a minimum of 34 per cent of current earthquake load requirements, in accordance with building regulations.
The Holmes report found meeting those minimum requirements for both the Opera House and the Municipal Building was likely to cost between $10.7 million and $13.2 million.
However, the report said recommendations from the New Zealand Society for Earthquake Engineers were that strengthened buildings should target a minimum of 67 per cent compliance.
Its estimate for 70-75 per cent compliance was between $14.2 million and $17.8 million while bringing the complex up to 100 per cent of the code would cost between $17.8 million and $21.7 million.
Hastings Mayor Lawrence Yule said the council faced a range of options from strengthening one or both of the buildings through to demolition which he said would be "a massive call".
He said work on the council's long-term plan, its budget for the next 10 years, included $20 million of spending on three projects - $7 million for the redevelopment of Clive Square and $4.5 million to develop a CBD hotel, as well as the $8.5 million set aside for the Opera House strengthening.
"The scale of the upgrade costs presented in the report will mean the previous thinking about the $20 million allocation for these three projects will have to be revisited," Mr Yule said.
"This could include a reprioritisation, changing time frames on projects or even the elimination of expenditure on one of these projects," he said.
"We are disappointed by the scale of the strengthening required but, subject to peer review [of the Holmes report], these are the cards we have been dealt and we need to manage the situation in a sensible, comprehensive and collaborative way."
Councillors will meet behind closed doors next week to discuss the report and the council would "work out a communications and community engagement process that will ensure everyone gets an opportunity to have their say on the issue," Mr Yule said.
Heritage New Zealand said it hoped that consultation would "explore all options of retention" for the Category 1 historic buildings in the complex.
The findings of the Holmes report "reflects the very challenging reality of earthquake issues that New Zealand is dealing with", Heritage NZ region manager Claire Craig said.
Hastings District councillor Wayne Bradshaw said "hard decisions" would need to be made in relation to the council's spending priorities and the $20 million earmarked for the three projects did not take into account other district needs such as developing the CBD.
"The opera house has a place in the hearts of the people of Hastings and that probably puts it fairly high up the priority list to fix," Mr Bradshaw said.
"But we have to take a deep breath and, taking the people with us, ask what we want our city to look like and how we can make sure people want to invest here," he said.
"We've got a lot of monuments in this town, and in this district, so we probably have to think maybe there will just have to be a few less plaques around with politicians' names on them."