New chapter in library plan

Commercial reality is closing out hopes the business community will be able to help pay for an extended Greerton Library.

Four Tauranga City Councillors who have spent the last 11 months exploring ways the library could be developed through a public-private partnership have found it won't work for Greerton.


The proposed public-private development for the Greerton Library is not feasible.

The council proposed a public-private redevelopment of the current Subway block on the corner of Greerton and Chadwick Roads, Greerton library and adjacent Plunket site whereby the council would offer the land, but developers would own the building and require market return on their investment.

The city would be put in a position of having to lease back library space, at commercial rates.

Councillors Terry Molloy, Larry Baldock, Tony Christiansen and Bill Grainger volunteered to explore the partnership option last May after the council rejected the $1.3million, 450m2 extension to the library building selected by ratepayers in the Annual Plan.

The council decided on the cheaper $520,000 option A that will extend the library by 200m2. According to council's own figures the 200m2 would only cater for growing library use until 2013.

'As I understand it any joint development is over, but there are other things we are investigating,” says Tony Christiansen today.

'We do have a resolution by council to actually do something, so we have to follow through that process as far as we can.”

'We've gone through that joint venture situation and it can't stack up. It's going to be at too high a cost for the city. Any joint venture is really not going to work for the council. Now we go through the process of what we can do ourselves with the funding that we have available.”

Terry Molloy believes there is still something to be salvaged.

'We've got a taskforce working to come up with a proposal that will work and we are getting very close to something that's acceptable,” says Terry.

'We are putting it to the council on April 22. It's not all over not by a long chalk.

'We have got a couple of quite reasonable proposals to put on the table. Some of it is in confidential at this stage.”

Larry Baldock also says there may still be a joint venture opportunity with the final development.

'We did go through one round of expressions of interest with some developers, but it just didn't stack up,” says Larry.

'The idea was that we could keep the costs to ratepayers as low as we could, and it wasn't working out, that's about all I can say.”

Bill Grainger says they are working through an option that should see the library extension built at no cost to council.

'If we have to sell a property or two to do what we have to do we will,” says Bill.

'That's what we are going through at the moment. It hasn't been finalised yet.”

The joint venture was exploring the third redevelopment option - demolishing and rebuilding a larger 970m2 library with the help of private sector partner.

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8 comments

Do councillors have business ability?

Posted on 11-04-2013 12:58 | By Phailed

Because wasn't this always going to be the case? When you build something bigger and better it's bound to cost more. Minus the cost of the land in this case, but there's no guarantee of that either. Look at any deal the Council gets involved in. The hotel, the hot pools, the tsunami sirens.


Does Cr Grainger understand cost?

Posted on 11-04-2013 13:36 | By Contradictus

Because I don't think selling properties to pay for this development is really at no cost to Council. Those properties if sold to pay for the development could otherwise have been sold to repay Council debt. Council has to live within its means and the sooner councillors learn that the better.


Councillors or ability

Posted on 11-04-2013 23:21 | By Crash test dummies

Phailed they are opposites no chance of with existing at the same place and time.


New chapter? WOW

Posted on 11-04-2013 23:27 | By Crash test dummies

Not at all:- same book, same page, same story, nothing changes except your rates Bills that are starting to look like the US debt, you just have no idea what is coming.


INEVITABLE OUTCOME FROM THE USUAL SUSPECTS

Posted on 14-04-2013 11:54 | By EYESPY

Don't worry about any business acumen no ability in any field except failure.Luckily TCC did not get this lemon off the ground as TCC ratepayers would be paying the piper in full as they will on any CBD hotel arrangement with maori iwi. ENJOY !!


New Cahpter?

Posted on 14-04-2013 22:13 | By PLONKER

Are you referring to the third chapter in the Police Academy book of tales as seems to be that there is going to be a new head out of all this?


The Epitaph

Posted on 15-04-2013 11:18 | By YOGI

That is where it started and that is where it is now and will always be. These usual suspects just don't seem to realise that this was a waste of time before it started, although well intended the essence was never there to be anything useful. Fancy someone building on TCC land, so you never own the land. Unless someone has a bit of cash laying around for something like this ... shows that they are not in the real world at all.


Discover looking for a mugg-a-thon

Posted on 18-04-2013 23:24 | By Crash test dummies

Just a dream in lal lal land that took 10 months catch up reality, all they were really trying to do is trying to find some bigger mug than TCC but 10 months just isnt enough time by years.


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