The gallery reopened on November 9 last year.
The final cost of Whanganui’s Te Whare o Rehua Sarjeant Gallery redevelopment is in, and ratepayers will cover just under a third of it.
A report from project director Gaye Batty said the project, which began in 1998, had cost $79.4 million.
That would be covered by the Government ($42.4m), Whanganui District Council ($26.08m), and the Sarjeant Gallery Trust, community grants and donations, and the Preston Estate ($10.92m).
A bequest of $850,000 was received from the estate of Jonathan Preston, a sheep farmer from Raetihi who died in 2018.
Whanganui District Council chief executive David Langford told the council’s operations and performance committee on July 31 that while the cost was higher than expected, “so are the full range of benefits we are getting from this project”.
On July 24, the gallery ticked over 100,000 visits since reopening on November 9, with surveys indicating 60% came from outside the region.
“It is estimated to be contributing about $17m of visitor spend into our local businesses, which will, over time, offset the cost to the ratepayer many times over,” Langford said.
“I would certainly like to see us, at the very least, sustain those [visitor] numbers, and potentially increase them.”
He said the council was engaging with Tourism NZ to make sure Whanganui was well promoted internationally.
Batty’s report said in June 2020, the project had a total budget of $55.08m.
“In line with other major projects that have had to manage the combined impact of Covid-19 on programme, staff availability, material and labour cost escalations and disruptions in the supply chain, the project has significantly exceeded the original project budget,” it said.
“There was a 28.3% total cost increase in non-residential building costs over our construction period.”
In March 2022, the Chronicle reported that the forecast cost had blown out to $64.4m, with then-mayor Hamish McDouall saying restoring and earthquake-strengthening the gallery’s heritage building had presented a number of challenges for the construction team.
“It’s a unique and iconic building that has to be handled with great care,” he said.
The $19.67m overspend since 2020 was due to several factors, including the pandemic, work on the heritage building, ground conditions, insurances and archaeology, Batty’s report said.
Council-approved scope changes and extras, including the fit-out of the cafe, additional AV/ICT infrastructure, and landscaping works, made up just over $4m of the overspend.
In 2015, the council committed $5m to the project and then, in 2017, it voted in favour of being a guarantor of the project to secure Government funding.
The redevelopment was expected to cost $34.9m at the time.
Councillor Kate Joblin said the final cost was “a whole chunk of money” and she hoped the council did better with significant projects in the future.
But the gallery had tangible benefits, she said.
“I’ve been around long enough to remember, not in detail, but the number of bailouts the Cooks Gardens complex needed when that was built.
“Who can imagine what Whanganui would be like if we didn’t have Cooks Gardens.
“I am in no doubt the Sarjeant will become the same treasure, the taonga of this community.”
Councillor Rob Vinsen said he attended the first council meeting about the redevelopment in 1998.
“It is a great facility, but it’s time now to move on from talking about the capex [capital expenditure]. That is spent money,” he said.
“Our attention as council should turn to operating costs of this institution, because $200 per ratepayer [a year] is too high.”
The rates requirement to operate the gallery in 2025/26 is about $4.9m.
Last year, Vinsen proposed a $15 entry fee for out-of-towners.
During this week’s meeting, he said he hoped that would still be considered.
Whanganui Mayor Andrew Tripe said significant projects of international standards cost a lot of money, but the Sarjeant would benefit the community for years to come.
“We have an incredible asset, and we are not going to unbuild it for the very few and diminishing number of detractors out there,” he said.
“Let’s move forward and celebrate what we’ve got.”
Langford said a “broad and all-encompassing” project review was under way, with the council’s executive officers already holding workshops with Batty, the project management team and review facilitators.
The council would spend about $1.78m a year in loan repayments for the project, he said.
Joblin asked if, with the benefit of hindsight, he still thought it was a good project.
Langford, who is leaving his role in October, said it had been - “absolutely”.
“While the cost is higher, the benefits that are being delivered are proportionately higher still,” he said.
“Could the project have been set up slightly differently and run slightly more smoothly?
“Yes, but that’s probably the answer to every single project that’s ever done.”
Councillor Jenny Duncan said ratepayers had to be recognised for their contribution, especially those who would not use the gallery and were struggling to pay their rates.
“I also want to acknowledge Nicola [Williams, former Sarjeant Trust chair] because, if it wasn’t for her, it wouldn’t be $26m we were putting in," Duncan said.
“Who knows, it might have fallen over at one point or another, because we didn’t have that additional funding we needed to keep going.”
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.