Why pay $100m for the Town Hall when you have the MFC?

Stuff reports:

Wellington’s earthquake-prone town hall is now unlikely to reopen until 2020 – seven years after its doors shut to the public – and it may not end up being 100 per cent of building code.

Wellington City Council staff were told on Monday that the current best-case-scenario was to resume seismic strengthening of the 112-year-old building in September 2017.

The town hall, considered to have some of the best acoustics in the world, was shut in November 2013 for strengthening. But work halted three months later when the cost ballooned from $43 million to $60m. …

City councillors approved a plan last year to strengthen the town hall, along with the nearby civic administration building and central library, for $73.2m.

But while the intention in 2013 was bring the town hall up to 140 per cent of new building standards through base isolation, the goal now is to hit a minimum of 77 per cent of code.

So the price has doubled and the standard has halved!

May 2015: Council approves $96.5m worth of spending in its Long-Term Plan for the town hall strengthening and Civic Square upgrade.

That is around $10,000 per household they are spending. And the Town Hall is next door to the Michael Fowler Centre which is perfectly fine.