Southland District Council is on the move after sealing the deal on a $3 million building.

On Thursday, the council announced its October purchase of Henderson House with the intention of having all its staff in one place.

As it stands, employees are split across three buildings — an earthquake-prone Forth St premises and two leased sites on Don St.

The move would spell the end of the Forth St site which included three connected buildings and previously belonged to Southland County Council.

The oldest of those was built in 1939, with the district council taking over in 1989 following amalgamation.

There was optimism the upcoming move would prove cost-effective for the organisation.

“Having staff in one council-owned office building will mean there is a saving when we stop paying the leases on our two Don St offices,” council chief executive Cameron McIntosh said.

Built in 1990, Henderson House is located on Invercargill’s Kelvin St and will be refitted to the tune of $15.75 million in accordance with long term plan budgets.

Its purchase price was exclusive of GST.

In regards to capacity, the new site had an occupancy limit of 200 but just how many people it would staff was yet to be decided.

No decision had been made on the future of the Forth St premises either, and a timeframe could not be given on when staff would be moved.

The changes come at a time when Southland District Council is proposing the region’s four councils morph into two unitary authorities.

McIntosh said the new building did not affect its goal of seeing that happen.

The council had also explored shifting its office into the district but decided against it because of costs and challenges attracting new staff.

LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air