Council backs ‘premier tourist attraction’ over extension plans

Marlborough’s mayor believes the region needs to support its “premier tourist attractions” as the council approves up to $1.7 million for the Omaka Aviation Heritage Centre.

Mayor John Leggett says the centre is “clearly one” of the region’s top attractions, and that he is “very supportive” of the loan as the trust behind the centre has “proved itself” in the past.

The centre, owned and operated by The New Zealand Aviation Museum Trust, asked the council for $1.4m in 2011 to help pay off a loan.

Interest payments on the loan, which the council guaranteed when it was taken out in 2006, were threatening the centre’s viability.

The council agreed it would pay off the interest on the loan if the centre grew visitor numbers to 30,000 a year and pay off the entire loan if the centre could self-fund an upcoming extension. The centre met both conditions.

The trust also needed to appoint a suitable council employee as a trustee. Council economic manager Dean Heiford currently holds the position.

The centre is now planning a new $5m extension to double the size of its World War II exhibition.

The trust has completed financial projections for three years out as part of the new request, for up to $1.7m, which is needed to unlock extra funding from the Lottery Significant Projects Fund. The projects fund could supply up to 60 per cent of the $5m.

If both the funding from council and the projects fund came through, some “other fundraising” would be needed. The trust called the 2023 Easter airshow a “major fundraising opportunity”.

Trust chairman Brian Greenall told the planning and finance committee last month the trust was comfortable in its ability to service a loan, and with the new extension there would be increased income streams by way of providing facilities for holding large functions.

Councillors were told the centre currently had two other loans which were “due to conclude” in the very near future.

Minutes from the planning and finance meeting in March went through full council on Thursday. The council agreed to its part of the deal, although the agenda item was not discussed.

Omaka Aviation Heritage Centre chief executive Jane Orphan says the funding would “allow an asset to go ahead, and bring even more people into Marlborough, and benefit everybody here”.

Jane says the 2011 loan write-off was labelled a “bail-out” at the time, which was unfortunate.

“We asked ‘is there a way we can get past that [debt]’, and the council set KPIs [key performance indicators] that we had to meet over time,” she says.

Mayor Leggett says the 2011 loan was probably the first big decision he had to make when he became a councillor.

At the time, he was one of four councillors who voted against the decision.

“I was very new to council in 2011 when it became an agenda item, and it was one of those situations where, the benefit of a little bit more time, and a little bit of understanding [personally] about things, would have helped,” he says.

Jane says she is expecting a decision from the Lottery Significant Projects Fund in June.

Public Interest Journalism funded through NZ On Air.