By Catherine Watson
AFTER a decade of debate, disappointment and broken dreams, work will start next month on the Cowes Cultural Centre.
Bass Coast Shire Council this week awarded a tender for the $27.2 million project to Melbourne firm McCorkell Constructions Pty Ltd.
AFTER a decade of debate, disappointment and broken dreams, work will start next month on the Cowes Cultural Centre.
Bass Coast Shire Council this week awarded a tender for the $27.2 million project to Melbourne firm McCorkell Constructions Pty Ltd.
McCorkell Constructions has a large number of major public construction projects behind it, including schools, police stations, civic buildings, recreation centres, as well as restoration projects including the Wheeler Centre and St Kilda Pier Kiosk.
Construction is expected to begin next month, following further demolition works. The build is expected to be completed by February 2023.
Bass Coast Mayor Brett Tessari acknowledged the value of community feedback on this project, which is reflected in the refined concept designs from June this year.
“We heard how community members really want to use this space, so based on that feedback, the design was changed and the footprint of the Centre increased,” Cr Tessari said.
The centre will be home to a library, museum, 250-seat theatre/cinema, function/meeting rooms, visitor information and council customer service centre, a café and box office, an art gallery, office space and the Genealogy and Historical societies.
Construction is expected to begin next month, following further demolition works. The build is expected to be completed by February 2023.
Bass Coast Mayor Brett Tessari acknowledged the value of community feedback on this project, which is reflected in the refined concept designs from June this year.
“We heard how community members really want to use this space, so based on that feedback, the design was changed and the footprint of the Centre increased,” Cr Tessari said.
The centre will be home to a library, museum, 250-seat theatre/cinema, function/meeting rooms, visitor information and council customer service centre, a café and box office, an art gallery, office space and the Genealogy and Historical societies.
| At $27.2 million, this is by far the largest and most expensive project the council has ever undertaken. Costs for the project have blown out substantially since it was approved in 2019, when it was costed at $19 million. But the economic landscape has changed so completely in the past two years, largely as a result of the pandemic, that ratepayers will end up paying less for a bigger construction. In 2019 the council was prepared to fund $15 million from borrowings and $4 million from council reserves. Last year the State Government allocated $2.5 million from its Growing Suburbs Fund and last month the Federal Government allocated $5 million to the project through its Building Better Regions Fund. The council has also been able to borrow $10 million from the State Government’s Community Infrastructure Loan Scheme at an extremely low interest rate, making this a very attractive inter-generational project. | Facts & figures
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Jackson Clements Burrows Architects designed the new centre, considering world-leading, sustainability principles and ensured it aligned with Bass Coast’s Climate Change Action Plan 2020-30.
The design is expected to reduce operational energy requirements by 60 to 70 percent over its lifetime, in turn reducing costs and CO2 emissions by about 150 tonnes each year.
An independent Economic Impact Assessment found the Centre would generate 69 jobs during construction and 30 ongoing jobs once built, as well as $51.8 million in economic benefit over the life of the project.
A Cowes cultural centre has been a long time coming. There have been six designs since 1993.
In 2016 there were celebrations when Bass Coast councillors voted to proceed with a $17 million centre but hope turned to despair after the October 2016 council election when a new council voted to shelve the project.
The project once again reached final design stage before the 2020 election. This time the council made sure there would be no turning back by demolishing the old cultural centre before the election.
The design is expected to reduce operational energy requirements by 60 to 70 percent over its lifetime, in turn reducing costs and CO2 emissions by about 150 tonnes each year.
An independent Economic Impact Assessment found the Centre would generate 69 jobs during construction and 30 ongoing jobs once built, as well as $51.8 million in economic benefit over the life of the project.
A Cowes cultural centre has been a long time coming. There have been six designs since 1993.
In 2016 there were celebrations when Bass Coast councillors voted to proceed with a $17 million centre but hope turned to despair after the October 2016 council election when a new council voted to shelve the project.
The project once again reached final design stage before the 2020 election. This time the council made sure there would be no turning back by demolishing the old cultural centre before the election.