A plan to bring the former city archives building back into use in Hull has had its budget increased by £700,000.
The listed building in Lowgate is being refurbished as part of a wider plan to centralise administration in and around The Guildhall. An annex is set to be added to the front of the building.
The Lowgate work will allow the authority to relocate 300 staff currently based at Brunswick House off Beverley Road.
Council documents show the budget for works to the Lowgate building has now risen to almost £2.5m. They said more money was needed to create accessible entrances and increase capacity, while there were extra costs due to moving staff and archives out of the building while work goes on.
The documents say: “In order to meet this shortfall monies will have to be found from the corporate maintenance programme with reductions in our ability to fund other necessary works over the medium term.”
Hull-based building firm Hobson & Porter was awarded a contract for the works worth more than £1.8m.
The Lowgate building was built as a wine seller’s offices and warehouse in 1882 and extended with a turret 26 years later. It became home to Hull's City Record Office, but most archives were moved to the city's new History Centre in 2009 and the building has been largely empty since.
