The Cromwell Memorial Hall, built by the local community in 1960, will close for good in early May, in preparation for demolition.

This will make way for the town’s new $16M cultural centre, with construction scheduled to begin in July.

In a statement released today, the Central Otago District Council announced the hall would close on May 2.

“From this date there will be no more access for regular hall users as well as the wider community.” 

 The closure date means that, as long as Covid Protection Framework settings allow, the ANZAC day commemorations on 25 April

will likely be the last community event to be hosted at the hall.

The new facility has been costed on being 2000sqm in size and planning work was being progressed by various groups of council staff, design

experts and community representatives, all tasked with the project.

Decisions around how to provide a new cultural centre and whether to upgrade the old hall or build new, proved difficult and divisive for Cromwell,

with debate continuing for around 20 years before the current plan was finally settled on. 

Now workshops and meetings are well underway with a Project Advisory Group comprising Cromwell Community Board chairperson Anna Harrison,

board member Nigel McKinlay, executive manager, planning and environment, Louise van der Voort and property and facilities manager Garreth Robinson,

along with project team members, meeting in January for a full-day workshop. 

This was led by Jasmax, the Christchurch-based firm who, working with Cromwell architect Jess Sutherland as a design partner, were awarded the $2.2M design

contract for the project late last year. It focused on the project’s vision, objectives, sustainability and resilience, according to the council statement.

On either side of that workshop, Jasmax held its first round of meetings with representatives from the Cromwell RSA, Cromwell Museum,

Cromwell Heritage Precinct and Cromwell Town & Country Club. Meetings with representatives from the Cromwell Cultural Centre Trust and the

Fine Thyme Theatre Company will take place this week.

 Council’s Cromwell Masterplan project manager, Darren Penketh, said a lot of interesting discussions have taken place during the sessions.

He was excited to see what Jasmax return with after the next round of workshops later this month.

These will focus on site constraints and opportunities, benchmarking and building accommodation requirements and the technical,

functional and operational requirements of what is a significant project for the town.