The year we swelled to 130,000

Dunedin has moved from a city battling stagnation to one facing the challenges of growth, and 2018 has been a key year in that transformation. David Loughrey looks back on a run of good news, and the big events that marked the year. 

Dunedin entered 2018 after a year not without its periods of gloom.

In February 2017 news broke that after years of speculation and concern, the city's Cadbury factory would finally close, leaving about 350 people facing an uncertain future.

The fallout of that news drifted into this year, when, in May, owner Mondelez announced the last link with the chocolate manufacturer would end with a decision the Cadbury World attraction would close for good.

But by that time the city was already focusing on what was to come next for the Cadbury site, a $1.4billion hospital build set to bring people and employment to a city already humming with activity.

And the hospital was only one story of a Dunedin in growth mode.

In the last year the city's Forsyth Barr Stadium struck gold, with three Ed Sheeran concerts alone selling more than 100,000 seats, and netting the city $38 million.

And a feeling the city was swelling at the seams became more of a certainty, when Stats NZ gave the latest population figures at more than 130,000 for the first time.

But growth brings its own challenges, something the city will spend the next few years dealing with.

On May 4 the Otago Daily Times broke the news that two blocks of central Dunedin - including the Cadbury factory site and the block to the north - would be the site of the new hospital.

With the site chosen and the planned 2020 beginning of construction getting rapidly closer, work began to get the city ready for a big influx of workers.

More than 1000 are expected to be needed, and in September, major industry players, government organisations and others got together to deal with what is expected to be a serious shortfall in skilled labour.

That work will continue in the new year after the group was given government funding for a full-time worker to organise the response.

In December the Government announced it planned to fast-track part of the build, with an outpatient and day surgery building set to be completed, probably on the corner of St Andrew St and Cumberland St, by 2023.

Tenders are expected to go out in the new year for a main architect and an engineering firm for the work.

The success of Forsyth Barr Stadium is another good-news story of the year, one which saw some big gains for the city's economy.

The three Ed Sheeran concerts filled the city to capacity when close to 70,000 came from outside Dunedin for the shows.

But there was plenty more on offer at the stadium this year.

Overall, eight major concerts pulled in more than 200,000 fans, many of them from outside the city.

Apart from Sheeran, there were performances by Stevie Nicks and The Pretenders, Roger Waters, Robbie Williams and Pink.

The year of concerts finished last weekend when Shania Twain drew a crowd of 18,000.

Dunedin Venues chief executive Terry Davies said the economic return for the city for the year looked set to be worth $60million; a "phenomenal" result.

In October, new figures showed Dunedin's population had surged past 130,000 for the first time.

The estimated resident population figures released by Stats NZ showed the population had jumped by 1900 people, or 1.5%, to 130,700 in the year to June 2018.

That was on top of a similar increase, of 1800 people, in the previous year.

The news showed the decades of minimal growth the city had been experiencing were, perhaps, coming to an end.

But that issue brings its own challenges.

In November, a Mayor's Taskforce for Housing report found 650 more social and community units were needed just to meet current demand.

Mayor Dave Cull said this week the city was "in pretty good heart".

Mr Cull said the most important aspect of the population rise was the age demographic within it.

The cohort that dominated the increase was the 15-39 age bracket, which the city needed.

"It's not just about getting more people. What we wanted was a more balanced demographic in order to make the community sustainable.

"That's the pleasing aspect of that."

Mr Cull was also confident the city was moving towards providing higher-skilled jobs.

"I think it is happening.

"I think it's pretty significant that virtually everybody who was put off at Cadbury's went somewhere they wanted to go by the time they were put off."

About 95% had either gone into new jobs or voluntarily retired.

"That tells me there was a pretty healthy demand for reasonably skilled people.

"They went out and got jobs."

Mr Cull said it was "a great relief" to have a timeframe for the hospital build, and certainty it would stay in central Dunedin.

But there would need to be work put in to provide housing for a rising population and bigger workforce coming to the city.

"We already know that we've got quite steeply rising social housing needs."

The hospital would also affect both the community and the council in terms of the price it would have to pay for contracts for any construction work it wanted done in a tight market.

"We always think it's a bit of a problem for a council when you haven't got much growth.

"Well, you have more challenges when you do have growth, because you've got to find funds to invest in the infrastructure that's needed."