Audit New Zealand has signed off on the Hundertwasser and Wairau Maori Art Gallery fundraising process.
Whangarei District Council chief executive Rob Forlong said the audit found the fundraising and underwriting of the building met the conditions set out in the council's binding referendum in 2015.
Prosper Northland Trust (PNT) was behind the two-year drive to meet the cost of the building, raising $21.7 million and surpassing the revised fundraising target of $20.97m - up from the original $17m due to earthquake proofing and other engineering needs.
Now those same pin-point precise engineering requirements - still at the lines-on-paper stage - look set to hold up the optimistic, promised start to building before Christmas.
"We are still working on the engineering plans for the site," PNT chairman Barry Trass said.