Major employer courted for Dunedin

Dunedin's GigCity status could help deliver a big win, as a major employer eyes a move south that could bring 300 jobs with it, Mayor Dave Cull says.

Mr Cull yesterday confirmed he and Dunedin City Council chief executive Dr Sue Bidrose have been in talks with the major national employer — which is yet to be named — in recent weeks about a move to Dunedin.

The organisation was considering Dunedin for a range of reasons, but one of them was the city’s gig-speed fibre broadband infrastructure, he said.

And, if confirmed, the move would deliver 300 new jobs to the city.

Mr Cull revealed the details during yesterday’s council 10-year plan budget hearing, as Digital Community Trust chairman John Gallaher spelled out the need for Dunedin to use its new fibre infrastructure to become a "smart city".

Mr Cull told the meeting he had been conscious of previous criticisms of the city’s slow response to winning the Gigatown competition, but the organisation’s possible shift south showed the infrastructure’s value.

"That’s the outcome," he said.

Mr Cull would not be drawn on the identity of the organisation, or whether it was private or public, when contacted by the Otago Daily Times after yesterday’s meeting.

He was also not yet prepared to  give odds on the likelihood of the organisation moving to Dunedin, but said the interest to date was "positive".

Dr Bidrose told the ODT she could not talk in detail about the ongoing talks either, but confirmed the organisation had approached the council seeking assurances about any move to Dunedin.

That included whether the council could help navigate a potentially time-consuming and expensive resource consent process.

Dr Bidrose said the council had given an assurance it would roll out its "red carpet" treatment to help the organisation.

Earlier, Mr Gallaher told yesterday’s hearing attention was now turning to what came next, following the rollout of the city’s fibre infrastructure.

The network of fibre infrastructure had spread across much of the city since Dunedin won the national Gigatown competition in 2014, but complaints about delayed efforts to make the most of the win had emerged too.

Mr Gallaher told councillors that, with the benefit of hindsight, some aspects of the network’s rollout could have been done differently.

Despite that, the network now in place represented a "pivotal opportunity" and a chance for the city to rebrand itself as a "smart city", he said.

Those opportunities needed to be a fundamental part of the council’s 10-year plan, Mr Gallaher said.

The trust was finalising a report identifying those opportunities, which would be given to the council in the next few weeks, he said.

Much like the arrival of electricity, people in Dunedin were still learning what the arrival of fibre meant and the uses it could be put to, he said.

A review of Dunedin’s digital strategy, signed off in 2010, was needed, and the plan for the digital space needed to be worked into the city’s economic development strategy, he said.

"We need to move on," he said.