£18,000,000 - at least - for Council’s Newry HQ

Ratepayers across Newry, Mourne and Down will share the cost of at least £18,000,000 to build the Council's new offices behind Newry Cathedral.

With no Belfast Region City Deal funding for the offices, Council management, local political party leaders and members of the councillor led Programme Board - responsible for the Newry City Centre Regeneration Projects - have in recent weeks failed to reply to Newry.ie media queries seeking clarification on the potential cost to ratepayers to build the council’s new presence in the city.

However, despite the blanket silence, Newry.ie came across ‘Tender 55/2023 - Newry Civic and Regional Hub’ on the UK Government website, Gov.uk. with the tender published on October 10, 2023, and a closing date of November 17, 2023.

A short description on the website states: “Newry, Mourne and Down District Council wish to demolish the existing multi-storey car park and construct a new Civic and Regional Hub building within the Newry City Centre. The new Civic Hub building will be c. 4,760m2” - this is 840sqm smaller than the 5,600sqm listed in the planning application.

The ‘Estimated value’, is listed at £18,000,000, excluding VAT.

Costs go up and up and up 

£7,000,000 - In September 2019, Council CEO Marie Ward told a media briefing in the Sean Hollywood Arts Centre, that the new council offices would cost ratepayers an estimated £7m.

Challenged if that included fitting out the building ready to move into, Mrs Ward had to admit it did not and was unable to provide an estimated finished cost.

£9,000,000 - In January 2020, the estimated cost of the council offices had risen to somewhere in the region of £9m.

£12,300,000 - By January 2021, the council confirmed the figure hit double digits at £12.3m.

£14,637,280 - A year later, on January 11, 2022, to be exact, the estimated cost was just over £14.6m.

£18,000,000 - It is not known if the 2023 figure of £18m includes the ‘Cat B Fit Out’ cost to the council’s requirements - including a second 41-seater Chamber for councillors (there is already one in Downpatrick) - resulting in a building that is ready to occupy. If not, ratepayers will have more millions to pay.

Additional 

It is also unclear if the estimated cost of £18,000,000 includes the Electricity Substation for the building that will be required or an NI Water Infrastructure contribution - both of which could run into hundreds of thousands of pounds - as well as Professional Fees and Relocation Costs. 

Newry.ie has asked the Department for Infrastructure if any of the £5m of funding from the Belfast Region City Deal it is overseeing for the public realm aspect of the new Council offices - outdoor seating and lighting, car park area etc – is included in the £18m, but at the time of publishing, it had not responded.