A recommendation from Tauranga City Council staff to build the new civic building through private funding will be brought to councillors on Tuesday.
The recommendation to invest $22.3 million in capital costs plus an ongoing lease cost of $2.5m per annum is a result of additional work the Civic Space Options project team has carried out following public submissions that presented arguments for council leasing a new building as opposed to owning it.
The capital cost is the figure set aside for the council's fit out of the building and for costs like demolition and technology.
Council ceneral manager city transformation Jaine Lovell-Gadd said leasing a new building would significantly reduce the initial capital investment required.
"It would also provide the private sector with an opportunity to be involved, add value and demonstrate the innovation that they can bring to big projects like this," she said.
The original recommendation proposed investing $68.6 million in the next four years to build a new civic administration building with surrounding open space on its Willow St site. This figure was based on how much it would cost for the council to construct and own the building.
Mayor Stuart Crosby said a vast majority of the 578 submissions received during public consultation supported the proposed civic heart approach, with credible issues and quality suggestions raised in submissions and the subsequent hearings.
Across the submissions, four major topics were identified. These were:
• sequence of delivery of the elements of the proposal
• proposed cost of the civic administration building
• preferred procurement methodology 'lease' vs 'own' of the civic administration building
• the Master Plan
Questions were raised about the status of the existing buildings as a viable option for long term council office accommodation.
"A number of submissions, from individuals and organisations, questioned the focus on the delivery of the civic administration building ahead of other amenities, and its ability to achieve the project objectives," Mr Crosby said.
"These submissions asked the council to speed up the delivery of the library, museum and performance venue. They suggested that accelerating these projects would more fully contribute to the objectives of the civic heart project, in particular creating a more active, safe and vibrant central city."
Among the submissions that sought this approach were some key membership or representative organisations including Chamber of Commerce, Priority One, Tourism Bay of Plenty, Creative Tauranga, Downtown Tauranga and Tauranga Art Gallery.
We are recommending council moves straight to detailed business cases for a new library and museum
Mrs Lovell-Gadd said: "We are recommending council moves straight to detailed business cases for a new library and museum. The business cases would be completed by January 2018, allowing for an informed decision for investment in the Long Term Plan 2018-2028.''