CORONAVIRUS has brought an $18 million construction project in the heart of Forster to a standstill in a situation the council is urgently seeking to resolve.
Midcoast Council confirmed on Tuesday that the Forster Civic Precinct project was on ice after the pandemic began "impacting on the developer's ability to meet the works schedule".
The project includes a public library, a visitor information centre and a customer service hub.
Its origins stretch back more than a decade to the 2007 declaration that the Forster School of Arts Hall was unsafe.
Developer Enyoc has been chosen to design and construct the buildings, entering into a commercial arrangement with the council in which it will prove $6 million of in-kind support in exchange for part of the site being available for private use.
The council said on Tuesday that it was working through the situation and would update the community when a way forward was decided.
"Initially work paused while the developer assessed the impact of COVID on the health and safety risk for the site," the council said in a statement.
"The deepening community risk caused by COVID across Australia has caused financial difficulties that have impacted on the original timeline of completion by September this year, which will now not be possible."
Construction began in January last year.
Nationals MP for Lyne David Gillespie described the proect as "an outstanding gain for the Midcoast region as a whole" when announced $6 million in federal grant funding towards the works.
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