Four million dollars into a $21 million repair budget, and not a single fix has been made to Invercargill's crumbling civic headquarters.
The Civic Building on Esk Street — several decades old and struggling with water ingress, failing heating and cooling systems, and outdated electrics — shed 167 of its 247 staff last year after the council declared it unfit for continued use. Council group manager Patricia Christie said the building "no longer fit for purpose."
The $4.3 million spent so far has gone entirely on fitting out temporary digs: 97 staff have shifted to HWR Tower nearby, and 70 are working out of Invercargill Central mall. Christie said fit-out costs came within the allocated budget, and that the $21 million envelope was always understood to include relocation and fit-out alongside any repair work.
But the building itself hasn't been touched. No repairs. Not even a full scope of what repairs would cost or how long they'd take. The council won't make a long-term call on its office accommodation until 2027.
"A long-term decision on Invercargill City Council's corporate accommodation is expected to be made in 2027, once the organisation has worked through the options available," Christie said.
That timeline looks even more uncertain now. The council had been exploring a shared office with Environment Southland through an expressions of interest process — a move that could have spread the cost of a new or upgraded facility. Environment Southland has since walked away, its special projects lead Dominic Rikiti pointing squarely at the government's Head Start reforms, which would dissolve regional councils.
"Further consideration of a new building or a significant upgrade of the current one will not be progressed until there is greater clarity about the future of local government in Southland," Rikiti said.
Which leaves Invercargill City Council in an awkward holding pattern: money being spent, no work being done, and the future of the building — and the organisation that owns it — still unresolved.
Southland District Council is moving faster. It bought Henderson House on Kelvin St in 2024 for $3 million plus GST, and is consolidating staff from three Invercargill sites into the one building. Work so far has covered mould clearance and leak repairs. Southland mayor Rob Scott said the project was on budget and staff would likely be in at the New Year.
"While reform discussions have created some uncertainty, waiting for the perfect time to undertake a project like this would likely mean it never gets done," Scott said.