In an email to all councillors and chief executive Richard Saunders, Cr Kevin Malcolm, of the Moeraki constituency, has called for a review of the Whare Rūnaka project.
"Somewhere down the track the Otago ratepayers are going to want justification of our expenditure," Cr Malcolm said.
"I believe it is time that we had a further discussion as a council to reflect on where this project is heading."
Mr Saunders said yesterday an agreement was in place for Port Otago to develop the former central Dunedin site of The Warehouse in Maclaggan St.
Port Otago had obtained consents ahead of work beginning.
There was some flexibility within the design, but council staff would need more information on the nature of any proposed changes to determine their impact on the project, Mr Saunders said.
In his email, Cr Malcolm said although he supported a city centre headquarters in principal, he had held concerns from the outset.
First, despite the project representing the largest capital expenditure the council had committed to, there were no elected members on the project’s oversight group.
There were no cost controls in place to ensure the final product was "value for money".
Additionally, Cr Malcolm said, he had wanted assurances the final cost would be in line with the Dunedin market.
The original idea had been to refurbish the former The Warehouse building "at a total cost of approximately $25m", he said.
That price tag had included buying the building.
The new headquarters was initially expected to house up to 330 staff, Cr Malcolm said.
Now, councillors were told about 200 staff were based in Dunedin while others were spread across the region, he said.
The decision to proceed with the project in February was made by councillors behind closed doors, but the ODT understands it was not unanimous.
At the time, two councillors, Crs Michael Laws and Gary Kelliher, contacted the ODT to say they opposed the new council building.
In the emails obtained by the ODT, Cr Kelliher continued his opposition.
He raised questions about aspects of the design and said he would be "totally opposed" to further costs yet to be considered "such as rainwater collection".
Yesterday, Mr Saunders said "final plans" had been approved by councillors.
There was flexibility available within the building footprint that provided for future growth in staff numbers to the leasing of office space or carparks, he said.
The project had been approved after "many years" of discussions about the council’s future accommodation needs within the city.
"In making that decision council considered a number of factors including value for money," he said.
"The building will be a significant asset for Port Otago which is 100% ORC owned and brings significant investment to this part of the city."
In February, Port Otago chief executive Kevin Winders said the port company bought the building for about $10m with an arrangement with the council to underwrite it as a tenant.
Port Otago would put another $35m into the site and the council would complete the fit-out at its own cost for about $11m.
As part of the project Port Otago bought the council’s Birch-Kitchener Sts site for $7.9m.
The site had previously been designated as the site of the new headquarters.
The balance of the funding would come from the building reserve, which was "built up for this purpose", the council said.
