Property sales in pipeline for ORC

The Otago Regional Council building in Stafford St will be surplus to requirements soon. Below: ORC land on the corner of Birch and Kitchener Sts that was not used as the site of a new headquarters after councillors of the day resisted a proposed $28million price tag for a new build in 2010-11.PHOTOS: PETER MCINTOSH

The council is nearing the end of a lengthy process to establish a new base in the city.

When it does it will sell its present Stafford St headquarters and an unused parcel of land at the corner of Birch and Kitchener Sts, in the Harbour Basin, which it acquired during the search.

A council spokesman said an expected $7 million in revenue was in the council’s long-term plan for 2023-24 for the sale of the surplus Stafford St and Birch-Kitchener Sts properties.

‘‘However, these are historic cost values for those properties and not the expected market value,’’ the spokesman said.

This year, the council-owned Port Otago bought the former Maclaggan St Warehouse site in Dunedin’s city centre.

At present, council staff in the city are spread between council’s Stafford St headquarters and at Philip Laing House, where the council has leased space until October 2023.

The Otago Daily Times reported in 2018 that the regional council’s then decade-long search for new headquarters had cost the council $10million.

The Birch-Kitchener Sts site was bought in 2007.

On that site alone the council spent a total of $7.15million, including purchase costs, architectural plans, engineering and planning costs.

However, the preliminary estimated cost of the proposed headquarters at that site was about $28million and the plan was met by pushback from councillors at the time.

The option was decided against in 2010-11, but the council still owns the site.

At present, the council has $5million set aside for 2022-23 to fit out its new headquarters.

It also plans to spend $2million a year in rent and operating costs.

hamish.maclean@odt.co.nz