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Rebuilding Christchurch’s quake-damaged inner city Anglican cathedral may not happen. Costs have blown out. Funding – just like the cathedral roof – has a big hole in it.
The Christ Church Cathedral Reinstatement Trust says its budget estimate had ballooned from $104 million to $248m, following a four-month project review.
There is now a $114m funding gap. Ratepayers and taxpayers are being asked to foot the bill.
The Trust says this is not the news it wanted to announce.
Trust chair Mark Stewart says there is “no sugarcoating” the situation.
“Ultimately we are going to run out of money unless we solicit some support. What we need is a lifeline.”
We’ve been doing our best to stretch the dollars, the Trust says. This included beginning to reduce staff numbers and slowing on-site work to help keep costs down.
“We realised that costs were starting to get quite expensive. There were changes … in … our estimations … and the bills that were flowing through from that [in 2023]” Stewart says.
Costs keep mounting up
Back in 2017, the Anglican Synod voted by a narrow margin to reinstate the building. At that time, the cost was estimated at $104m.
The Trust was set up to fundraise the money needed.
The Government of the day pledged a $15m taxpayer contribution, plus a $10m loan towards the cathedral project.
Christchurch City Council also committed $10m in ratepayer funds.
By 2020 however, the project costs had increased by $50m. That’s about 48 per cent higher than the sum originally estimated.
As the Trust discovered in December, these costs just keep ballooning. More cash is needed to pay the bills and keep the project running. It’s not an easy fix.
Stewart says if $30m isn’t secured by August this year, the project will be indefinitely mothballed.
A “mothballed scenario” would see the project “hidden from view, and people will not be able to visit it or preserve it, because it will remain a construction site in suspension”.
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News category: New Zealand.
