Waterfront stadium to cost $900m plus

The Eden Park Trust Board today released a report by international quantity surveying consultancy WT Partnership into the cost to complete a waterfront stadium in time for the 2011 Rugby World Cup.

On November 10 the Government released a cost estimate for the waterfront stadium of $498m ($498,848,000).

Since then WT Partnership has reviewed the Government’s figures line by line and put the cost of the waterfront stadium at $902m ($902,250,000).

A second new peer review of the waterfront stadium costings by Davis Langdon, an international quantity surveying firm with substantial experience in stadia, has estimated the waterfront costs at $912m.

The two peer reviews were conducted independently.

On top of the estimated $900m plus figure, Eden Park’s transport and engineering experts say additional expenditure on improvements to Quay Street and to Britomart, would be required to service the transport needs of a waterfront stadium. The $900m also excludes possible mitigation for affected parties, e.g. local businesses, waterfront apartment dwellers and Port neighbours.

Key differences between the Government’s and WT’s estimates included allowances for:

Iconic design provisions to meet the expectations of the New Zealand public for a national stadium

Acceleration costs to compensate for extended working hours and double-shifting needed get the stadium completed on time

Relocation and land purchase costs for POAL

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Contingencies

A negotiated contract (as opposed to a competitive tender).

WT Partnership also identified a number of missing elements from the Government’s cost estimate, including:

Eden Park Chief Executive John Alexander said WT had put the base cost to construct the waterfront stadium at more than $120m more than the Government’s estimate.

“These two new QS reports match up with industry benchmark figures of $9,000 per seat, for stadia seating more than 50,000 people,” Mr Alexander said.

“We challenge the Government’s cost-per-seat estimate of $6,000.”

Mr Alexander said that Eden Park’s design plans were well advanced, which meant that the Trust Board had a high level of certainty over the redevelopment cost of $385m.

WT Partnership ( http://www.wtpartnership.com) is an international consulting quantity surveying practice. It has worked on a range of significant projects including the Melbourne Cricket Ground, Stadium Australia, the proposed new stadium in Perth, Vector Arena, Britomart and Auckland Art Gallery.

The report is available on request.

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