About a third of the $1.2 million spent on Auckland’s downtown Christmas tree are costs associated with the installation of the tree for the first two years, new information from the Auckland Council has revealed.
The newly installed Te Manaaki tree is 18 metres tall, with more than 10,000 LED lights and 200 giant baubles, and is owned by Heart of the City and Precinct Properties.
Auckland Council said it had given $800,000 to support the project, using money from the city centre targeted rate – money that city centre residential and commercial property owners pay on top of their normal rates, for promoting the city centre.
A council spokesperson said half of the $800,000 went towards buying the tree, and the remaining $400,000 goes towards costs for putting up the display for this year and next year.
Funding will need to be raised for the installation of the tree beyond the first two years.
“We expect the co-owners will bring in private investment to continue displaying Te Manaaki over future festive seasons,” the spokesperson said in a statement.
Heart of the City and Precinct Properties have also paid the balance of the capital cost, the pack-up and storage for the lifetime of the tree, as well as a launch event, the statement said.
Earlier, Heart of the City chief executive Viv Beck told RNZ that the tree was a long-term investment.
“It’s built of solid material that’s very different from an inside mall tree, it has to endure the elements… It’s stainless steel, it’s outside, and if it lasts 10 years that’s $124,000 a year split three ways, now we’re hoping it lasts a lot longer than that.”
Auckland Ratepayers’ Alliance spokesperson Sam Warren said while the tree looked incredible, he wondered if it could have been achieved at a much more reasonable cost.
He said there was uncertainty over whether ratepayers will need to fork out more money for its installation in the future.
“It’s certainly a huge price tag for third parties to cover. Council has already committed $800,000 towards the tree through targeted rates.
“If private funding is unsuccessful, are CBD ratepayers and businesses going to have to pay even more than they initially said?”
Warren said he made a LGOIMA request for a cost breakdown for the tree in October, but was declined by council on the basis that they would soon release that information.
In November, council released a broad breakdown of costs – saying that $400,000 went towards “operational funding”.
Warren said council needs to be more transparent and release more details about the budget lines for the Christmas tree.