The selling of the Rutherford option

The Nelson Mail continues its series of articles about the long-running debate around the case for a performing arts centre and associated conference centre for Nelson. TRACY NEAL looks at why a site next to the Rutherford Hotel was chosen as a preferred home for the planned development.

The public wrangle over where best to build a performing arts centre is nothing new. Just ask councillors and staff who were around in the 1970s when the Trafalgar Centre was built.

A decision on a site for the new development has dominated this council's thinking, with much of it having gone on behind closed doors.

That was until July last year when the council finally declared its hand and announced it had secured an option on the site next to the Rutherford Hotel. It had signed an agreement with Rutherford Hotel Holdings to buy the site for $4.2 million, but no money has changed hands yet. The council said recently the purchase was subject to the building actually going ahead.

There are benefits and drawbacks to locating the development on this prime bit of real estate, even if it's not the ultimate in locations, Nelson Mayor Kerry Marshall concedes. Millers Acre remains the ideal, as it was back in the 70s when debate hotted up about where to build the Trafalgar Centre. However, Millers Acre was permanently ruled out as a potential site in 2001.

The current council is now working hard to convince the public the site next to the Rutherford Hotel is the best on offer.

"We've considered every bit of land available and this is the first time the council has put something out to the public," Mr Marshall says of the consultation process currently underway.

He points out that this council has simply picked up where the previous council left off. The land adjoining the hotel in Selwyn Place and Nile St was named as a possible site for a performing arts centre by the previous council headed by Mayor Paul Matheson. He said months before his retirement from the council in 2007, that it was "ready to go" with an announcement, but was being held back by commercial reasons.

The commercial hitch appeared to revolve around leasehold arrangements.

Rutherford Hotel Holdings is owned by Talley's Group, which bought the site from the Nelson Diocesan Trust Board, subject to a long-term lease to Selwyn Motor Holdings.

Garry Dayman, the director of the motor holdings company, has until now been reluctant to say much.

"To put it positively, there's now a heads of agreement in place so that pretty well negates us," Mr Dayman says of the agreement between the land owner and the council. He declined to comment on any redress which might be owed in the event of an early exit from the lease.

"It's still commercially sensitive from that perspective. What I will say is that Selwyn Motor Holdings is happy to facilitate a positive outcome for the site. We're not holding a gun to anyone's head and we believe it's the best site for a performing arts centre and we'll do whatever we can to facilitate the transition," Mr Dayman says.

The council's decision was swayed by several factors, including that the land was available – or at least able to be made available with a bit of legal manoeuvring. It also offers proximity to the central city, is next to Nelson's largest hotel and proposed new conference facilities, and is within easy walking distance of other accommodation.

Proximity to central city car parks was also a plus, given that there are no plans at this stage to build car parking into the development.

However, questions have been raised over how such a large public building could be constructed without adequate parking.

Council technical services senior executive Alec Louverdis, speaking in the absence of the council's chief executive who is currently on leave, agrees there is still some significant fine-tuning to be done in terms of solving the car parking challenge. He acknowledges that parking during day time events could be an issue, but there's only so far $28 million can go in terms of large-scale building works.

"The issue of parking has been raised and we'll be looking at that, but for $28m we can't provide underground car parking and the intention is to use city carparks.

"I say this with the caveat we still need to get resource consent but the intention is we'll use Montgomery Square car park and utilise parking in the area."

By early December the council will make a decision on whether to go ahead with developing a performing arts centre or not, but it would still be subject to resource consent.

"We're confident we will have the answers once we get down to the detailed stage," Mr Louverdis says.

It is easy to see why people would not question the merits of building a large civic venue on council-owned land such as Rutherford Park. However, the council is currently juggling many balls on the subject of central city development, and doesn't want a thumping great building blocking the views from the city to the sea.

Mr Marshall patiently explains that the choice of site was partially governed by the outcomes of the latest central city strategy, Heart of Nelson.

"One thing about the location – and people are still talking about Trafalgar Park and Rutherford Park etc, but there was a clear message that came through the strategy, and that was we need to consolidate the CBD so people can walk around it."

Other preferred sites on the council's radar until recently included land in Paru Paru Rd – despite difficulties around complicated land ownership issues, access difficulties and conflict with important infrastructural services, and the New Zealand Army drill hall site on the corner of Rutherford and Hardy Sts.

Mr Marshall said only recently that the council was still interested in the drill hall site, which is next to the Theatre Royal, but the Crown had approached with the information it was potentially part of a settlement package for iwi across Te Tau Ihu (top of the south), and placed the council second in the queue. "If Maori do not want it, we would take it," Mr Marshall says.

The Nelson Millennium Centre Trust, which has been ensuring the project's momentum, backed the council's preference for the site next to the Rutherford Hotel for a number of reasons, including that it appeared least likely to be hindered by complex resource consent requirements surrounding other sites.

Trust chairwoman Bronwyn Monopoli said last year the preferred site had a building next to it – the Rutherford Hotel, that was higher than the proposed fly tower of a performing arts centre.

Trust member Brian Rhoades says there is not a site in Nelson that has not been looked at in detail, including many "impossible" sites. It is his view, and one he believes is supported by trustees, that the site next to the hotel is a "truly wonderful site" because it meets so many of the trust's criteria.

Many city councillors were reluctant to comment while the current public consultation process was underway. Rachel Reese said a number of matters were still being negotiated with Rutherford Hotel Holdings, including the operational agreement.

Councillor Pete Rainey has remained quiet throughout the recent process and declined to comment on the grounds of a perceived conflict of interest in that he runs an entertainment business.

Councillor Graeme Thomas was in a similar situation, and did not participate in the site debate due to a conflict of interest (through his accounting business), but believes it is suitable for the development.

Long-serving city councillor Mike Cotton supports the concept. He says councils over the years have looked at various sites, such as Millers Acre, Wakatu Square, Rutherford Park, and the army land in Rutherford St.

"At all of those sites the council would have had to build and pay for a performing arts and conference centre and possibly assist with a hotel.

"The more recent proposal to do a public-private development with Rutherford Holdings seemed to have distinct advantages with them providing the conference centre and hotel," Mr Cotton says.

Councillor Aldo Miccio believes the site offers the best potential economic return for businesses in the CBD, and offers the most convenient and attractive location for tourists.

Councillor Gail Collingwood supports the decision on the site because of its proximity to the city, adjacent accommodation and the willingness of the hotel to enhance the existing conference facilities.

Despite Mrs Monopoli's report card on the site, she recently expressed some misgivings that the conference centre component of the building planned for the land had been pulled back under the Rutherford Hotel roof.

Mr Thomas says he would prefer that an "all-inclusive PACC was built".

When it comes down to it, Mr Marshall says, a conference centre is critical to the wider development and it would simply cost a lot more to do both. He says there is no doubt that Rutherford Hotel Holdings would benefit from the deal, but he sees it as a quid pro quo arrangement in that it would mean the council would not have to build a conference centre.

"From an economic point of view Nelson has to have a conference centre that caters to needs better than what we have now."

Mr Miccio says all the studies so far show that for a conference venue to work it must be within 10 minutes' walk from hotel accommodation.

"Having the performance venue alongside the conference facility offers conference or event organisers greater flexibility and scope for combined use of both venues," he says.

Mrs Collingwood says a benefit to Nelson city from splitting the development would be that the council, or ratepayers, would be saved the expense of construction costs for the conference centre.

The downside, however, is having no income from the conference centre to flatten the costs of a multi use performing arts venue.

Councillor Mark Holmes said the council had been routinely lobbied by the business and commerce sector to provide a good quality conference centre of certain minimum specifications.

Mr Louverdis cautions against any thinking that it's a done deal.

"People think this is further down the track than it is.

"There is now a consultation procedure, the facts and figures are there and we've done the studies, and we've given an indication of operating costs."

To find out more about the consultation, go to nelsoncitycouncil.co.nz. The Nelson Mail also welcomes its readers' views and contributions to the debate – write to the editor via mailbox@nelsonmail.co.nz.

- © Fairfax NZ News