The council bought Henderson House, in Kelvin St, Invercargill, for $3 million plus GST, and plans to move all Invercargill operations into the one office building. The purchase of the building was concluded in October.
Chief executive Cameron McIntosh said since the original council building in Forth St was found to be earthquake prone, about five years ago, council operations had been separated over three buildings and that had been challenging in many ways.
"A lot of work has been carried out to look at many different solutions, including leaving staff in the three different offices, including two leased ones in Don St, but the one that makes the most sense was when Henderson House came on to the market and we investigated if that would work and what cost it would be.
"A key consideration in all of this was whether we should move the office out into our district as that has been suggested by some ratepayers over the years. Unfortunately, costs were a lot higher and with many of the staff already in Invercargill and the challenges in attracting new staff, it was decided to not do this."
He said the purchase did not change the council’s plans to combine Southland’s four councils.
"We will still need a base to house staff and the Henderson House location has the potential to be expanded to cope with the needs of the proposed change to local government in the south.
"Reducing four councils to two in Southland, with one being urban-focused and the other rural-focused, will ensure that rural Southlanders are fairly represented and have a local voice. The Henderson House purchase is part of the work needed to enable us to provide that fair representation when required."
Mr McIntosh said since 2015, improvements to the Forth St building have been budgeted for, but council did not spend any money on that project until the viability of upgrading the building was established.
He said buying and refurbishing Henderson House was the more cost-effective option. — APL
