A decision at today’s Waitaki District Council meeting could allow the continuation of an ongoing negotiation to get an interested tenant into the council-owned building, council assets manager Neil Jorgensen said.
The proposed $4million budget for the work was based on "a reasonable amount of work in the background" and the recommendations councillors would consider would also set out the minimum requirements for a deal.
"We just want to know if council, if they want to continue with this deal ... we just need some parameters around ‘what is our window of negotiation’," Mr Jorgensen said.
The council took ownership of the building in late 2015, after the dissolution of the North Otago RSA. Without an expansion, an upgrade of the building was expected to cost $2.1million.
The $4million budget for the larger work programme would be contingent on a 10-year commercial lease signed with the tenant before the work began.
A non-notified resource consent decision provided by the council yesterday shows consent was granted on February 1 to redevelop the building into a commercial premises and construct a car park on the former bowling greens, to allow the site’s use as a 24-hour call centre.
Mr Jorgensen’s report to council states an agreement has been made with the potential tenant not to name it while lease conditions are negotiated. In May last year, Trustpower’s community relations manager, Graeme Purches, confirmed the company had been in talks with the council about relocating its Lower Thames St customer service centre to the vacant building.
In response to a request for comment from Trustpower in relation to the RSA building by the Oamaru Mail last week, the electricity generator and retailer’s facilities and workstyle manager Catherine Gee, of Tauranga, said "Trustpower is considering its future work environment and building needs in Oamaru and as part of that, is in conversation with Waitaki District Council".
"Trustpower has made no decision to date."
The company employed 101 people in Oamaru — predominantly call centre staff — all based at the Thames St building, she said yesterday.
Questions have been raised about the lack of community involvement in the future use of the 1951 building.
Former Waitaki district councillor Helen Stead’s written opposition to the upgrade and expansion using ratepayer funds without public consultation was published to the council’s website on Monday after being circulated to council staff and media.
Mrs Stead said yesterday there would be ‘‘public unrest’’ if the deal progressed without public consultation.
A South Hill resident, she said increased traffic from the business would change the character of the area beside South Hill and she opposed "the very fact that this seems to have gone ahead to this stage where we have got a 24/7 call centre that is going to be set up in the building and it’s all happened without any public consultation".
Waitaki Mayor Gary Kircher said while he disagreed with some of Mrs Stead’s claims there were "some other things we need some answers on, one way or another".
He defended the council’s negotiating process.
"We have had a good discussion among the councillors about what should be made public and what isn’t and I think we’ve got the right balance — trying to make everything public that we possibly can without compromising our bargaining position."
A council spokeswoman confirmed the building’s lease would be discussed during the public-excluded session following today’s public meeting.
