Councillors spoken to by the Herald were unwilling to discuss on record their feelings about the new digs, but confirmed there is \u201cdiscontent\u201c brewing behind the scenes over the new space.<\/p>\n
Multiple councillors said the mayor\u2019s office fell short of what is appropriate for the leader of the capital city, while the council\u2019s executive leadership team is to be based on the top floor.<\/p>\n
The mayor\u2019s office is located on the building\u2019s first floor, an area that will also house the councillors\u2019 lounge and council chambers, which will be accessible to the general public.<\/p>\n
It has a view of a neighbouring wall and the Frank Kitts carpark, according to those who attended the tour. <\/p>\n
The upper levels of Wellington City Council’s new headquarters boast magnificent views of Wellington Harbour, Oriental Bay and Mt Victoria, and will house the council’s executive leadership team. Photo \/ Ironhorse Construction<\/p>\n
The mayor often hosts VIP visitors in his office, including members of the diplomatic corps and Government ministers.<\/p>\n
Little said the situation was a \u201clost opportunity\u201d but that it was ultimately too late to change things.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe design of the new waterfront council offices was completed before I was elected, and I had no input into it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve shared with councillors the design is a lost opportunity to give visitors a view of our wonderful harbour.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s too late now, and I wouldn\u2019t support spending ratepayers\u2019 money on last-minute changes.\u201d<\/p>\n
Asked who decided to have the councillors and mayor on the first floor, a Wellington City Council spokesman said officers worked with the former mayor\u2019s office on the layout, and the full council were given early briefings last term.<\/p>\n
\u201cFollowing recent elected member visits, feedback was received on layout and security arrangements, options are being investigated to action this feedback within the current project budget.\u201d<\/p>\n
The spokesman said improving the council\u2019s \u201cconnection to the public\u201d was a key priority in the design.<\/p>\n
The new Jervois Quay HQ will house the council\u2019s 1200 staff, as well as the council chambers, mayor\u2019s office, hearing room, and a ground-floor reception.<\/p>\n
Relocation to the former Datacom building on Jervois Quay was supposed to happen at the beginning of last year, but has been pushed back due to delays in preparing the building and will be completed in the coming weeks.<\/p>\n
The Herald asked to visit the new site to see the office, but was told this wouldn\u2019t be possible as installation work continues.<\/p>\n
Mayor of Wellington at the time, Kerry Prendergast, in the mayoral office at the Wellington Town Hall in 2003. Photo \/ Mark Mitchell<\/p>\n
The current council chambers, alongside most staff, are in the former PricewaterhouseCoopers tower at 113 The Terrace.<\/p>\n
The organisation was previously housed in Civic Square but had to move to the temporary Terrace site, as well as a Boulcott St lease, and the City Archives building on Barker St in 2018 after the Kaik\u014dura earthquakes.<\/p>\n
The old mayor\u2019s office in the Wellington Town Hall was said to be much larger, with mustard-yellow walls, a chandelier, ornate drapes and an array of grand and traditional furnishings.<\/p>\n
At the current site, the mayor\u2019s office features a corner-room view of Lambton Quay from level eight, with modern office furnishings.<\/p>\n
The Deputy Mayor gets a more humble office, next door to the mayoral office and also on level eight, alongside the councillor lounge, which has shared workspace with a view of The Terrace.<\/p>\n
The Herald earlier revealed the lease for the new site would cost the council $207.4 million over its 25-year lease<\/a>. <\/p>\n The council\u2019s chief M\u0101ori officer, Karepa Wall, is leading the project and said the council secured a \u201cfavourable rate of $488\/square metre in comparison to other CBD lease options, presented to elected members, which had square metre rates between $1000-$1102\u2033.<\/p>\n The Greenstar-rated building is 17,000sq m, equalling an $8.29m annual lease cost to the council, and $207.4m over 25 years.<\/p>\n Ethan Manera<\/a> is a Wellington-based journalist covering Wellington issues, local politics and business in the capital. He can be emailed at ethan.manera@nzme.co.nz<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Councillors spoken to by the Herald were unwilling to discuss on record their feelings about the new digs,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":115492,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[180971,95,1975,2199,5205,26519,180970,3158,170230,82256,10934,117,111,43,139,69,6270,33027,1523,82257,392,50238,10115,42580,52],"class_list":["post-338101","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-allocation","tag-and","tag-at","tag-city","tag-council","tag-councillors","tag-discontent","tag-headquarters","tag-hq","tag-jervois","tag-mayor","tag-new","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-office","tag-offices","tag-over","tag-quay","tag-space","tag-stirring","tag-tensions","tag-waterfront","tag-wellington"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/338101","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=338101"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/338101\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/115492"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=338101"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=338101"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=338101"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}