The lowest capital cost of all precinct options came in at $387.5 million. The Museum of Applied Arts and Sciences will receive rent-free space in the heritage building it currently owns to operate the fashion and design museum. The 1500-seat Broadway-style theatre is to be run by a private operator on a 99-year-lease. Redacted page from documents released on Tuesday by the Berejiklian government on the Powerhouse Museum move. Credit:Fairfax "All commercial elements associated with the divestment of the Wran and Harwood buildings will be sold to the private sector," the brief states. The dollar value of development options for the Harwood building - where the bulk of the museum's collection is housed - and the Wran building, as well as costs of demolition, fit-outs and base works, are blacked out. Several volumes of "sensitive" documents inclusive of the final business plan, redacted of commercial estimates and capital costings including land sale value, were released following the upper house's successful censure of the Arts Minister, Don Harwin, last week.

Mr Harwin said the government made no apologies for looking at all options before making a decision about the existing Powerhouse site. "This is how great projects come to life. We are creating a creative precinct at Ultimo but before that, a masterplan, community consultation and a business case need to be completed." The final business case justifying the museum's move benchmarked a museum general admission fee of $15 and a ticket price of $34 per adult, $26 per child for separate entry to the Planetarium. The government pointed out these admission fees were similar to those charged by the Powerhouse now. Greens MLC David Shoebridge said a family of four would be more than $150 out of pocket for a single visit and this flew in the face of the government's own analysis which warned new museum visitors would be extremely price sensitive. Despite a predicted opening year boom, visits to the new museum would settle at less than those for all MAAS sites now, Mr Shoebridge said. An artist's impression of the new Powerhouse Museum to be built in Parramatta.

The analysis reveals that the costs of relocating a public car park at Parramatta as well as additional flood mitigation work at basement level, and consultation and management fees, could add to the project's $1.117 billion costs. The final business case assumes a 20 per cent increase in sponsorship for the new museum quickly ramping up to 40 per cent and a fillip in attendances. Early plans for twin super towers did not survive final assessment. But the government has been warned the decision to relocate the museum is not popular and unless properly marketed, the museum may not attract interstate and international visitors and inner-city communities in the same number. Labor's arts spokesman, Walter Secord, said the documents made clear there was no case to move the Powerhouse Museum from Ultimo to Parramatta and "the government was making it up as it moved along". The withholding of key financial details indicated the government had failed to comply with the spirit of the parliamentary resolution. The new riverside museum is expected to open in late 2022, or early 2023, attracting a 20 per cent rise in attendance figures during the first six months, 10 per cent the next, and eventually returning to "regular visitor levels".