Christ Church Cathedral was a symbol of Christchurch. "What will the new symbol be?" asks Professor Michael Grimshaw, a Canterbury University sociologist.

Grimshaw says that since the 2011 earthquakes destroyed much of the central city, its heart has moved from Cathedral Square towards Cashel St and the Avon River.

In Grimshaw's opinion, the Square is dead.

"It's basically a giant big traffic island" he says.

Grimshaw believes the city's narrative should be rewritten, putting its Anglican past behind it, giving it a fresh start and creating a 21st-century modern city.

Other diverging perspectives

The future of Cathedral Square in Christchurch is now impossible to predict as the project to restore Christ Church Cathedral is likely to be mothballed.

Several opinions about the Square's future have emerged.

Some see the half-collapsed cathedral as a pile of rubble that should be removed.

Others don't want the cathedral remains dumped.

Philip Burdon, a former Cabinet minister who co-led the campaign to save the cathedral, said mothballing was the best option in the circumstances.

"The reality is, it is going to be an unhappy economy for a couple of years. After mothballing for a couple of years, we should be in a more positive environment for public and private funding.

"I certainly do not regard demolition as a good option" he says.

However, a food truck owner has a different perspective.

"I think we should take it down and just start new again. It would be safer and more beautiful, and stronger" the food truck owner told The Press.

"It's not very good in this area, especially at night. Even the tourists come, and they can't see anything here - so they go to another place."

When he heard the "incredibly sad and disappointing" news, Mark Stewart, who chairs Christ Church Cathedral Reinstatement Limited, said the board would meet this coming Monday to discuss its implications.

"With the Government's decision, the pathway to completion is much longer and mothballing is now likely" he said.

Source

• The Press

In a report for Christ Church Cathedral Reinstatement Ltd (CCRL), economists from the NZ Institute of Economic Research (NZIER) say despite escalating costs, it's worth finishing the $240 million project.

The Government should help close the funding gap, their report says.

After analysing the pros and cons, the economists say "the benefits of reinstatement outweigh the costs, indicating that the project should proceed".

Urgent and ongoing funding

Deconstruction over the past year has uncovered the size of the problem CCRL is facing.

"We are dealing with a 150-year-old earthquake-damaged building. There are insufficient as-built plans from the 1880s and planning has included many assumptions which are now just being revealed to us" says CCRL chairperson Mark Stewart.

The estimated price tag escalated from $100 million in 2016 to $160 million last year.

CCRL needs at least $30 million and a "new funding pathway" by August. It says otherwise the project will be mothballed, leaving the cathedral as is.

Cost-benefits

The economists' report calculates the net benefit of a restored cathedral at between $1 million and $30 million.

This is largely due to Christ Church Cathedral's intangible "social, cultural and economic value for all New Zealanders".

The NZIER economists calculated it is likely to gather around $20 million a year from tourism. That makes for a cost-benefit ratio of 1.1 to a strong 3.0.

The Cathedral is a "public good". This puts the onus on the Government to "play a role in closing the funding gap" the economists wrote.

The gap is reportedly at least $114 million. It could be more, since to keep it this low requires $42 million from other sources. That additional money includes extra funding from the Anglican Church.

"As many of the benefits are associated with public goods or positive externalities, there is a case for central and local government to contribute toward the costs of reinstatement alongside the Anglican Church, tourism operators and philanthropists" the report says.

Public sentiment is divided. Some say "stop now". Others say "it must be finished".

Investment opportunity

The report aimed to help the Government, City Council and potential funders to decide whether to invest more.

While the cathedral's market value from direct use - eg tourism - was tiny, its reinstatement is needed to unlock the full value of investments in surrounding streets.

The economists estimated that value at a billion so far and another billion by 2034.

The economists say they did not analyse keeping the cathedral as a partially restored ruin. Nor did they quantify the disadvantages either from a public eye-sore point-of-view or from public safety issues.

The greatest benefits arose from the cathedral's non-use value of $9-$30 million. That "mainly consists of the value people gain from knowing the Cathedral has been reinstated, even if they do not visit it" the report says.

This is based on international stated cultural site preference surveys, keyed to Category 1 historic place.

Boost for residents

The 2011 earthquake destroyed many Christchurch heritage sites. This makes the remaining few "especially important to Christchurch residents" the report says.

Restoring it will also "strengthen social cohesion and contribute to New Zealand's earthquake engineering capability".

Source

• 1News

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".

Source

• RNZ
• The Press
• NZ Herald