MEDIA RELEASE

2 August 2018

Options on table for $15.5m civic centre

Masterton District Council is firming up options for the district’s future civic centre development.

The Council earmarked $15.5 million for the facility as part of its recently adopted 2018-28 Long-Term Plan.

It is now calling for expressions of interest from parties wanting to be involved.

Mayor Lyn Patterson said the expression of interest was one of the first stages in Council learning more about potential development options.

“We adopted the Long-Term Plan in June and committed to building a new civic centre for the community, based on majority support from submitters,” Mayor Patterson said.

“The purpose of the centre is to bring people together in a large-capacity venue that has a variety of uses, including hosting sports, music and performing arts events.

“This expression of interest process is the first step in us researching the best options. We want to make sure we’ve considered absolutely everything.”

Mayor Patterson said she was expecting a range of different options to be brought to the table through the expression of interest process.

“There have been discussions about whether we should consider a hotel or restaurant as part of the development, for example.

“Now is the time to see whether there are parties interested in bringing these sorts of services to the development and whether they would be of benefit to the community.”

Masterton District Council is also seeking dedicated project management resources to help it deliver the project. This may be an internal resource or the service could be contracted.

“This is arguably the most important project Council is going to deliver for Masterton in the next ten years – we need to make sure we get it right.” Mayor Patterson said.

The expression of interest details will be available on Tenderlink, while the Project Management role will be advertised on SEEK and in local news.

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