Wellington Mayor Tory Whanau open to selling airport shares amid cost crunch

Wellington Mayor Tory Whanau says she is open to selling the council’s shares in the airport and has admitted she will have to “let go” of some of the projects she campaigned on.

The council is batting away claims it is facing a financial crisis while three prominent Wellingtonians have taken matters into their own hands and paid for independent experts to take a look at the books. The resulting analysis found a potential $1 billion funding gap in unbudgeted costs.

Speaking to Nick Mills on Newstalk ZB Wellington Mornings, Whanau said she was currently in talks with councillors about what their priorities are as the council works on its ten-year budget.

“I have agreed that I’m going to have to let some of the projects I campaigned on go and that breaks my heart.”

Whanau gave light rail as an example. Her flagship policy was to deliver a new major urban revitalisation project between the waterfront and the hospital along the light rail route.

The National Party has confirmed it will kill light rail along with Let’s Get Wellington Moving after it forms a government.

Whanau said she was open to selling the council’s share in Wellington Airport as long as the money was used to reinvest in good projects and not to pay down debt.

The council has a 34 per cent share in the airport and Infratil owns the remaining 66 per cent.

Whanau said she is also open to selling some of the council’s ground leases.

She addressed reports of a deal that’s understood to involve the council buying the land underneath the shut-up Reading Cinema building in the heart of Courtenay Place. The building was closed in early 2019 after an earthquake risk was discovered.

Whanau said it was commercially sensitive but the deal would not impact rates and more details will be revealed in November.

Last week Wellington City Council agreed to fund a cost increase of up to $147 million for the Town Hall strengthening project - a situation Deputy Mayor Laurie Foon described as a stalemate.

The earthquake-prone building is nearly impossible to demolish because of its heritage protection.

The council was keen to talk to the incoming government about changing legislation to have more flexibility with heritage rules, Whanau said.

She said she wants to have the option of demolition for other buildings like the derelict Gordon Wilson flats.

“That’s my preference, for them to come down and utilise that space for much more resilient housing. But again it takes changes to legislation to enable that so, that’s a priority for us.”

The Michael Fowler Centre has also recently been deemed earthquake-prone and at least one councillor has already said the council might have to demolish the building because strengthening it would be too expensive.

But Whanau said it was too early to make that call.

“All I can say for now is we’re going through the process to determine the state of that building and we will have some options ready for council around remediation.”

Georgina Campbell is a Wellington-based reporter who has a particular interest in local government, transport, and seismic issues. She joined the Herald in 2019 after working as a broadcast journalist.