Insurance claims for closed Rotorua Museum still active

Insurance claims on Rotorua Museum are still active. Photo / File

Insurance claims on Rotorua's museum are still active and yet to be finalised more than two years after its closure.

Information provided to the Rotorua Daily Post through the Local Government Official Information and Meetings Act showed the museum had three forms of insurance with Aon at a total cost of $160,000 per year.

The insurance cover includes a $56 million material damage policy, $40m fine arts policy and business interruption policy for a maximum of up to two years loss of revenue.

The excess for the cover includes $25,000 for the fine arts policy. The combined material damage and/or business interruption policy would have a natural disaster excess of 10 per cent of the total material damage sum insured, or $5,619,695.

Information provided through the LGOIMA request stated the council's insurance claims were still "active and being finalised".

"Any final claims and payments will be publicly communicated at the appropriate time.

"It is important to note that any insurance payout would only cover the cost of reinstating damage and not additional work required to bring the building up to current building code."

The council estimates the loss of income from the museum to be "at least" $2.2m per year.

"But we are still quantifying the cost of any qualifying repairs, as opposed to strengthening and new code requirements."

In October 2016 the museum had a total revenue of $195,227, almost 25 per cent higher than budget.

In the same month there were 9863 visitors to the museum. In the 12 months to October 31, 2016, 113,450 people visited Rotorua Museum.

The latest costings for the rebuilding of the earthquake-damaged iconic building is $40m to $47m.

The Rotorua Lakes Council has already committed $15m through its Long-term Plan and it is now looking to the Government and other funding agencies to help with the remaining $20m to $25m.

Next steps for the Rotorua Museum project
Now: Developed design phase under way
Jan – July 2019: Detailed design phase
July 2019: Contractor procurement and construction starts
July 2019 – 2020: Construction
2020 - 2021: Exhibition development and installation prior to museum re-opening
Category One heritage building built in 1908