Polytech favours move to stadium

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By Allison Rudd on Sat, 25 Sep 2010
Otago Polytechnic | News: Dunedin

Otago Polytechnic would still like to move its Institute of Sport and Adventure to the Forsyth Barr Stadium, providing relocation costs can be reduced.

In July, chief executive Phil Ker said moving the department from Union St to the second floor of the stadium had been ruled out because the indicative fit-out costs of $800,000 and annual lease costs of at least $75,000 were more than the polytechnic could afford.

However, he told a polytechnic council meeting yesterday discussions were being held with the Dunedin City Council on whether relocation costs could be reduced.

Most of the cost related to the provision of infrastructure, he said.

There was also a possibility the institute could move into the 1200sq m building at the northeast corner of the stadium site being proposed to house the New Zealand Academy of Sport's South Island centre, he said.

"I hope the shift comes off. The stadium site is the right location for the [sport and adventure] school."

A document on relocation options and costs had been given to the council and the polytechnic was awaiting the outcome, Mr Ker said.

In July, the polytechnic said the institute would have to be relocated at some point as the Union St building was run down, did not use space efficiently and was on leasehold land. allison.rudd@odt.co.nz

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DCC relocation Subsidy

Submitted by JimmyJones on Mon, 27/09/2010 - 8:01pm.

Thanks Mike. It's a shame that our newspapers don't delve a little deeper. A few hard questions will usually sniff-out where the bad smells are coming from.

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More of our money being negotiated away

Submitted by MikeStk on Sat, 25/09/2010 - 10:36am.

Because the stadium is being built at minimum price the spaces they are trying to lease out are empty concrete boxes - no power, no lights, no water, toilets, insulation, phone, internet, heating, security systems, noise baffling, parking during games, internal walls, etc etc etc. It's a cold concrete box.

And it's going to cost $800,000 to fit out a space that rents for 1/10 of that - over 10 years it's going to effectively increase the $75,000 rent on that space by 2 and a half times when you include the interest on borrowing the money for the fit out - you can see why people don't want to move into these unimproved concrete boxes - they don't make economic sense.

So the Polytech's been told it's going to cost them $800,000 to put all that stuff in, and they're skint, about to raise student fees by 30% - as a result they are negotiating with the DCC to "reduce relocation costs" - that doesn't mean that the DCC is going to magically reduce the cost of the fitting out for the space. Really rather than using all these words to dance around the issue they should be saying up front what's really happening: the Polytech is negotiating with DCC to get the DCC to pay some or all of the $800,000 cost of fitting out the space - again that means you and me our rates are going to pay for yet another thing they forgot to include when they built the stadium - to do simple stuff like water and electricity and toilets and heating systems and insulation so that the concrete doesn't just soak up all the heat - all they have to rent out are cold concrete boxes. (I bet the corporate boxes are pretty though, and have running water and power and stuff)

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