A commercial building boom could delay the return of court services to the historic Oamaru courthouse, Waitaki Mayor Gary Kircher says.
Mr Kircher said this week the return of court services to the 133-year-old building could be delayed with a "potential delay getting a contractor on the job''.
In March, when Justice Minister Amy Adams announced ownership of the 1883 Oamaru limestone courthouse in Lower Thames St would be transferred to the Waitaki District Council, with the Ministry of Justice leasing it from the council for court services, Mr Kircher told the Otago Daily Times the strengthening work required for court services to return to the building could be completed within "nine to 12 months''.
In April, he warned there could be a delay to the start of the work once the council took possession of the building on July 1.
On Monday, he said work had begun to allow the council's contractors "to do the full assessment'', but he again said he could not confirm when the upgrade would begin.
He said the district's building boom was the reason.
The courthouse was identified as requiring earthquake strengthening and was closed in November 2011. Criminal court was transferred to Timaru briefly before going to the Oamaru Opera House in March 2012.
In August 2014, it was relocated to a prefabricated building in a Humber St parking lot, where it remains.
Council chief executive Michael Ross said
yesterday in an email he hoped the strengthening investigations under way would provide a cost estimate for upgrading the building late this month. He said there was no certainty at this point when the strengthening work to complete the building would begin.
Mr Ross said the council and the Ministry of Justice had been in talks about the lease with "most key terms agreed'', but the lease would be finalised "once total costs have been ascertained''.
"We have set a figure which we expect our cost envelope to comfortably cover,'' he wrote.
"We will review that once we have a more detailed understanding of what those costs will be.''
Mr Ross said he would not disclose the budgeted costs until the council had a signed lease agreement.
