Darwin Lord Mayor defends new civic centre as DCOH set to begin work

Builders have given themselves three years to deliver a new $150 million tower development. Read when it starts.

DCOH general manager Shane Dignan (centre) with Darwin Lord Mayor Kon Vatskalis (second from right).

Work on City of Darwin’s new Civic Centre development will get underway almost immediately following the formal handover of the construction site last week.

Lord Mayor Kon Vatskalis and councillors formalised the transfer of the block to DCOH chief executive Shane Dignan at an afternoon ceremony at the old council chambers.

Mr Dignan said with the fence erected last week, site huts would be brought in with survey work and landscaping to commence shortly after that.

“We’d hope to be coming out of the ground by the end of the Dry so it will ramp up mid-June or sometime like that,” Mr Dignan said.

“We’ve got a lot of workforce still here and we’ve added to it from the Charles Darwin University project. It’s a dedicated team with all the expertise to make sure that nothing interrupts us so we can just get on and get it built.

“We use Territory sub trades and Territory consultants and it will be a collaboration to get the best outcome.”

The proposed Darwin Civic Centre.

Lord Mayor Kon Vatskalis said the commencement of work would mark the next stage in the project after four-years of pre-planning to get the $150 million, 21-storey development off the ground.

“We’ve consulted with the community extensively, and we’ve got a clear message that the community wants something that’s nice, that’s big, especially the library, meeting rooms and toilets,” he said.

“We have to do it. We’ve got a moral and a legal obligation to provide a safe working environment for our people. The (existing civic centre) was built in 1967 and when we tried to find the plans, we couldn’t. When we tried to find the certificate of occupancy, we couldn’t.

“We don’t know if it complies with earthquake standards. It’s an old building and we looked at other options like do we renovate it, but it was cheaper for us in the long term to actually build something brand new than to waste taxpayer and ratepayers money on this building.”

It is estimated it would cost council $19 million over the next five years to keep it operational.

DCOH general manager Shane Dignan, Lord Mayor Kon Vatskalis and City of Darwin chief executive Simone Saunders.

The new Civic Centre will be constructed on the current carparking site, with a smaller footprint than the existing building.

Council said the surrounding area would be transformed into a cool, green community plaza.

Mr Vatskalis said City of Darwin and DCOH had previously partnered to upgrade Casuarina swimming pool and that the civic centre development would encourage further growth in Darwin.

Council is contributing $77 million to the total build, including $30 million for 410 parking spaces and the remainder on community and office facilities.

City of Darwin councillors unanimously approved the project but critics have lined up against it, including a federal court claim from a number of private Territory developers.

City of Darwin councillors and other stakeholders gather in front of the old council building.

Lawyers De Silva Hebron, on behalf of Nourse Nominees, Liveris Nominees, Civitas Properties Pty Ltd and Rapid Form Systems, allege City of Darwin is in breach of the Local Government Act.

Mr Vatskalis defended the project’s integrity.

“We put our money and they bought half of the property and we maintain 51 per cent ownership so we’re not bound to DCOH. They can do their own business, and we’ll be doing our own business,” he said.

“We’ll always be independent. We want to own our own building, our own home, like everybody else. We don’t want to rent and throw money at somebody else’s mortgage. We want to pay our own mortgage.”

Responding to resident concerns about disruptions to parking during construction, City of Darwin chief executive Simone Saunders said alternative arrangements had been put in place.

These included new 15 and 30 minute parking bays, relocation of council vehicles to its operations centre and double parking.

Arrangements have been made for council staff to park at the Waterfront and nearby Anglican Church, with additional parks outside Darwin Local Court moved to angle parking.

Work is expected to be completed by 2028.

Originally published as Darwin Lord Mayor defends new civic centre as DCOH set to begin work