Rotorua council approves $40,000 repair to Energy Events Centre

The metal 'fins' on Rotorua's Energy Events Centre are set to go in a $40,000 repair. Photo / Andrew Warner

Rotorua councillors this week decided to spend $40,000 to remove the distinctive - but corrosion-damaged - metal “fins” from the facade of the Energy Events Centre.

At a community and district development committee meeting on Wednesday elected members unanimously approved the cost of removing the feature.

Councillors were told issues with the build were partly due to historical cost-savings decisions made by previous councils.

Corporate services group manager Thomas Collé said steel had been used on parts of the building where aluminium should have been used.

This had flow-on effects with the cost of maintaining the building - including the roof which had to be replaced after 10 years.

“Obviously aluminium doesn’t have the same reaction to the corrosive environment that steel does in that place.”

The centre sits at Sulphur Point, a spot well-known for geothermal activity.

Corrosion impacted the ‘fins’ of the façade and the steel structure that held them to the building, he told councillors.

Rotorua's Sulphur Point is a well-known geothermal area. Photo / Felix Desmarais

It would have cost $200,000 to repair the metal fins and would have required a crane to lift it from the building.

The fins were not purely for aesthetics as they helped shield the windows from the sun.

Collé said removing the structure presented opportunities.

This included alternative heat-protection methods like solar tints on windows and utilising the space as an outdoor area for meetings and conference attendees.

The $40,000 needed would come from the existing renewals budget.

Deputy Mayor Sandra Kai Fong said it was an obvious choice.

Mayor Tania Tapsell said it was a great opportunity to refresh the building at a time when other event centres were doing the same.

The event centre hosted more than 116 community and sporting events alongside a number of meetings and banquets in the past financial year.

The meeting agenda read: “The venue is an important contributor to the local economy particularly as most of its business is generated in the off-peak tourism season and is an important strategic asset for council and the community.”

It said the total economic benefit to Rotorua was an estimated $20.5 million for the year.

Redesign work would be done and once under way the removal of the metal fins was expected to take about six weeks, partly during a routine maintenance period.

Laura Smith is a Local Democracy Reporting journalist based at the Rotorua Daily Post. She previously reported general news for the Otago Daily Times and Southland Express, and has been a journalist for four years.

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