Waitomo District Council has deferred the start on the last stage of the Te Kuiti Railway Station building restoration project, while it looks at the final configuration and incorporation of the existing i-SITE building into Railway station building 1.

Council has received great feedback on the external restoration work completed on the three buildings, two of which are now fully renovated and open for business as a commercial premise and a tenanted community space.

Mayor Brian Hanna says “The ‘Stoked Eatery’ is proving very popular and is an attractive destination in the town centre.” “The brick building is also proving popular with many community groups utilising this as a meeting space.”

Council is now considering the way forward for the remaining aspects of the project which consists of the interior renovation and structural strengthening of building 1; connection to the i-SITE building and the renewal of the plaza.

One of the considerations is that $1.9 million of the $2.25 million forecast total budget has been committed to date.

“The restoration of these 100-year-old buildings holds many challenges including fixing structural faults, meeting new earthquake buildings standards and retaining the very important heritage features”, says Mayor Brian Hanna.

With this in mind WDC need to carefully examine the options to identify the best way forward to complete this project. In the meantime the start on further work will be temporarily deferred while the options are worked through.

It is anticipated that the way forward will be confirmed by late February 2016.

The Te Kuiti i-SITE Visitor Information Centre will continue to operate a business, as usual, basis.