Work started yesterday on the Silicone Valley-style business Enterprise Precinct and Innovation Campus (Epic) centre at the edge of Christchurch's Red Zone.
The Government was investing $1.8 million over the next three years to support the centre. The BNZ had funded a significant portion of the upfront development costs through commercial funding arrangements whereby the majority of the project costs would be progressively paid back through rentals and grants once the centre was operating.
The Christchurch City Council had provided land rent-free for five years for Epic, which was one of the projects detailed in the draft Central City Recovery Plan as a catalyst to bring people back to the central city.
The project was also supported financially by the Canterbury Business Recovery Trust.
Otago Chamber of Commerce president Peter McIntyre said Epic was not necessarily a bad thing for Dunedin when the the greater good of the South Island was considered.
A lot of high-tech activity was already happening in the city through the University of Otago, the Otago Polytechnic, Upstart, the IT cluster and the Centre for Innovation.
"But we need to be much better at standing up and saying 'don't forget about us'. As far as technology goes in this country, Dunedin is seen as the leader of the pack. We have two high-class tertiary institutions, but we have the quality of people who have their work recognised around the world."
The package put together for Epic by the various parties was noteworthy, he said. With the Dunedin City Council economic development strategy getting close to release, Mr McIntyre hoped there would be some recognition of the need for the encouragement of high quality and value industries coming to the city.
But that also put some onus on Dunedin to perform well. When funds from central government were hard to come by, the city needed to show it could deliver quality results. It had done so in the past and would continue to do so in the future.
The Dunedin City economic development manager, Peter Harris, said he intended issuing an invitation to the promoters of Epic to visit the city to see what was already happening in the city.
The Christchurch project had been talked about for some time and yesterday's announcement did not come as a surprise.
However, he was keen to work with Christchurch to tap into a wider network of technology companies.
"We are looking at a programme of how we attract those sort of people and companies to the South Island and then talk about the bigger strategy of getting them to Dunedin."
Epic was the brainchild of Christchurch technology entrepreneurs Wil McLellan and Colin Anderson.
Mr McLellan said the concept was based on the Silicone Valley model, where a building's structure and use promoted innovation.
"Our building will be home to 17 hot start-ups and will stimulate the growth in the small to medium-size business sector here in Christchurch."
Economic Development Minister Steven Joyce said the Government wanted to ensure Christchurch remained an attractive place for the high-tech sector and the people working there.
"This is part of our wider support package for businesses that have been affected by the earthquake and is a great example of a public-private partnership to encourage growth opportunities for Christchurch."
Other support was provided by investment bank Murray & Co, Duncan Cotterill Lawyers, Warren & Mahoney, Colliers International, Canterbury Development Corporation, Octa, Timbercore, Deloitte, PwC, Industrial Research and Cera.
