Whanganui Community Arts Centre Trust appeals to district council after massive rent rise

Guests attending the opening of a Lyndsay Patterson exhibition at the centre in March. Photo / Steve Carle

An arts centre in Whanganui’s CBD is appealing to the district council following an annual rent rise of close to 300%.

The Whanganui Community Arts Centre Trust has been ordered to pay $23,000 a year for the next five years, with the previous rent bill being $8520.

A report from council property and open spaces general manager Sarah O’Hagan said the trust owned the building at 19 Taupō Quay but the land was owned by the Whanganui Port Company.

The trust, established in 2004, had a registered ground lease, with council officers handling administration for the port’s property portfolio.

A new valuation was completed earlier this year by Morgans Property Advisors, with the trust notified of the increase in April.

Since then, it had approached officers and the council several times to seek an adjustment on the “basis of affordability”, the report said.

“The trust describes itself as ‘a volunteer-run space for our community that celebrates all forms of art and the diversity that the arts engender’.”

The report said in November the trust suggested it could afford $15,250 a year.

Whanganui district councillors will vote on the matter on Tuesday, December 10.

They have three options - do nothing, provide the trust with a one-off grant of $7750 (the difference between the rent rise and what it can afford) or purchase the land off the Port Company and establish an arrangement with the trust.

The grant could be paid from the additional $100,000 - yet to be allocated - set aside for community grants in the council’s 10-year (long-term) plan for 2024 to 2034, O’Hagan’s report said.

Buying the land would require unbudgeted capital expenditure and the “total potential impact” on ratepayers was between $20,000 and $34,750 a year.

Doing nothing is council officers’ preferred option.

The report said generally rent values had increased significantly over the past five years.

“The Port Company as a CCO [council-controlled organisation] has been established to generate a financial return.”

The Whanganui District Council meeting is in the council chambers at 9.30am on Tuesday.

• This story has been updated to correct the subject of the increase. It is for annual rent, not rates as originally published.

Mike Tweed is a multimedia journalist at the Whanganui Chronicle. Since starting in March 2020, he has dabbled in everything from sport to music. At present his focus is local government, primarily the Whanganui District Council.