Wanganui's historic opera house is one step away from getting a structural makeover to bring it up to earthquake-strength standards.
Wanganui District Council is being asked to sign off on a $750,000 upgrade that will make the Royal Wanganui Opera House 34 per cent of the National Building Standard - a level acceptable to regular users of the wooden building.
The recommendation comes from the council operations and reporting committee which met this week. Anticipating the work will be done next year, the opera house has stopped taking bookings for between June and August 2015.
The council has written $20 million into its 10-year plan and allocated $5.9 million of that to strengthen some of its buildings over the next three financial years.
The opera house is one of 52 earthquake-prone buildings the council owns, and assessments done after the Christchurch earthquakes estimated the potential cost of upgrading all those buildings at $20 million.