Sir Peter Jackson with Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, an item for his movie collection which will be housed in the new Movie Museum in Wellington.

After more than a decade, Sir Peter Jackson's Movie Museum finally has a home in Wellington. Collette Devlin reports on what the project will mean for the capital and what else the city is doing to boost the economy.

Take one alien robot, add a flying car and a giant gorilla and you have the makings of a great movie.

Or in Wellington's case, a great movie museum.

SUPPLIED The Movie Museum founders Sir Peter Jackson and Sir Richard Taylor with miniatures being prepared for King Kong, which will be among thousands of Hollywood memorabilia housed in their new Wellington museum.

This week, after 14 years of planning, the dream of Kiwi movie mogul Sir Peter Jackson to share his Dr Who Dalek, his Chitty Chitty Bang Bang car and his 1933 King Kong armature with the world moved a step closer to reality.

Jackson and long-time collaborator Sir Richard Taylor finally went public with their plans to open a 10,000 square-metre movie museum inside a new Wellington convention centre in 2018.

The story of how they got to this point contained more plot twists than a Hollywood thriller. For starters, Jackson and Taylor were forced to reveal their intentions a lot sooner than they had hoped.

SUPPLIED Sir Peter Jackson and Sir Richard Taylor with a creature and weapon from Heavenly Creatures movie that will be in the new museum.

The plans came to light as council voted to buy the land opposite Te Papa for the $134.4 million project before an option to purchase it lapsed later this month.

A movie museum and convention centre have been on Wellington City Council's list of "eight big ideas" to give the economy a boost for some years now and hopes are high following Tuesday's announcement.

The project is expected to contribute $36m a year to the local economy and attract about 350,000 visitors annually.

Wellington Deputy Mayor Justin Lester compared the significance of Wellington's movie museum to when Disneyland opened in California in 1955.

"In the 150th year since Wellington became New Zealand's capital, there are only a handful of moments that rival the significance of this announcement."

The Movie Museum Ltd. signed a 25-year lease on the bottom two floors of a new three-storey building, which will be built and owned by the council.

The museum will be responsible for the fit-out, operation and maintenance of its facility, which will feature permanent and temporary exhibitions, a retail shop, a cafe and offices.

The idea of a museum was first touted in 2001, as Lord of the Rings fever put Wellington on the international movie-making map.

For more than a decade, dozens of locations were looked at.

Among the sites were Shelly Bay in Miramar, Shed 1 and site 10 on the waterfront, the former CitiOps building at the southern end of Tory St, TSB arena, CentrePort, Frank Kitts Park and Waitangi Park.

Movie museum bosses have been tight-lipped on what visitors will get to see when the attraction finally opens, except to say the exhibitions will draw on one of the most valuable collections of Hollywood memorabilia in the world.

Jackson and Taylor will share pieces from their many film projects and from their own world-renowned collections of movie and television memorabilia, which they have curated over the years with their partners Fran Walsh and Tania Rodger.

A King Kong stop-motion armature used in production of the original 1933 movie, a Dr Who Dalek and the Chitty Chitty Bang Bang car are among Jackson's personal collection, which are expected to be on display.

Movie Museum project director George Hickton says the attraction will be home to thousands of priceless designs, props, models and set pieces - from whole worlds to single weapons, creatures to costumes, make-up to miniatures, vehicles and more.

It is a museum that could only be realised in Wellington, Hickton says, given the capital has been synonymous with world-class film-making for 20 years and the museum's founders all live in the capital.

It is also the place that some 2000 talented filmmakers and craftspeople call home.

"The movie museum will celebrate their work, bringing the film industry closer to the people and communities that support it.

"It will also be a tourist attraction that is the envy of cities around the world and another jewel in the crown of Wellington's visitor attractions, building on other initiatives that already attract international and local movie fans."

Sir Ian McKellen, who played Gandalf in the Lord of the Rings and Hobbit movies, dropped a few hints of what he expected to see when asked during the Hobbit premiere in London last year.

"Of course the next development I hope is that Peter's going to devise, not more films, but a situation that you can all go to that is as much theatrical as cinematic," he says.

"A living museum where you will actually have the experience - as you sometimes do in the greatest exhibitions of that sort in Hollywood - to go into that and be there."

Visitors to the museum can expect to pay about $35 to get in when it opens.

HIGH HOPES FOR ECONOMIC BOOST

It is hoped the movie museum will enhance Wellington's reputation as the capital of culture, boost business and leisure visitation, create employment across the accommodation, retail and hospitality sectors.

Jo Coughlan, chairwoman of city council's economic growth and arts committee, says the council expects the museum will attract 310,000 people by year three, elevating Wellington as a "must visit" destination.

"Everybody loves going to the movies, and the fact that five of the world's top 10 grossing movies are home grown, makes building a modern movie museum in Wellington a perfect fit."

A new purpose-built convention centre was also a much-need facility for Wellington, which ranks second behind Auckland with 17 per cent of this country's convention market.

That business currently earns about $146m for the capital each year and supports 1000 jobs, Coughlan says.

"A new purpose-built convention centre will protect that business and grow it by about 10 per cent – about 67 new events delivering around 62,000 delegate days."

Tourism Industry Association chief executive Chris Roberts says combining the council-owned convention centre with the privately run movie museum will give it a competitive edge.

"One of the most successful new tourism products in New Zealand in recent times has been the Hobbiton Movie Set in the Waikato," he says.

"Wellington is at the heart of New Zealand's film industry, and the Movie Museum could potentially attract visitors on a similar scale."

WELLINGTON GETTING ON WITH BUSINESS

Airport Runway Extension

The other big project squarely on Wellington City Council's radar at the moment is a plan to extend Wellington Airport's runway south by 355 metres at a cost of $300 million.

Doing so would enable wide-bodied jets like the Boeing 787 Dreamliner and Airbus A350 to fly into the capital, opening up the potential for direct links to Asia and North America.

Wellington International Airport Limited, which is 34 per cent owned by the city council, recently commissioned more more than 20 independent reports on the project as it prepares for a resource consent hearing in the Environment Court in August 2016.

The authors of the cost-benefit analysis, Sapere, say the economic value added by the runway could substantially exceed its economic cost if operational by 2020. It forecasts $2 billion in national benefits over 60 years, with a third of that going to Wellington.

Of course, you cannot reap the economic benefits of having better business, tourism and student links to Asia without a long-haul airline actually flying to Wellington on a regular basis, and the city's ratepayers - who could end up putting $90m towards the runway - are yet to see any commitment from a carrier.

There are also some who believe the economic projections to date have been far too rosy, most notably the Board of Airline Representatives New Zealand, which represents 21 airlines that operate flights in this country.

Housing

Wellington City Council and the Government signed the Wellington Housing Accord in June 2014 with the goal providing 7000 new homes over five years. The theory being that increasing supply would make homes more affordable.

The target for year one was 1000 consents for sections and dwellings, rising to 1500 a year for the next four years. But the first 12 months only delivered 837 consents, albeit with some signs of increased developer activity towards the end.

The accord allows council and the Government to set up "special housing areas" where consenting is fast-tracked, with no public notification and limited appeal rights. To date, 24 of these have been created in Wellington with a total combined capacity of about 2750 houses.

Perhaps the most notable is a 2.8 hectare slice of Shelly Bay, which property developer Ian Cassels and the Port Nicholson Block Settlement Trust plan to develop with 300 high-end homes, a boutique hotel and a craft brewery.

The effects of the accord are still to be felt in the capital though. Latest figures from Quotable Value show the average value of a house in Wellington reached $558,211 in October, up 3.9 per cent in 12 months.

Roading

Roading projects in the Wellington region are a mixed bag at the moment.

North of the capital, the first section of the Kapiti Expressway - $630m four-lane expressway between McKays Crossing and Peka Peka - is taking shape after construction hit the two-year milestone last month. It is expected to open in February 2017.

The second half, between Peka Peka and Otaki, will begin construction in late 2016 and should be done by 2020.

Minor earthworks have also begun on the $850m Transmission Gully motorway ahead of its expected completion in 2020.

Plans are also firming for a four-lane highway between Petone and Grenada, after the route was decided recently. It is likely to start in 2019 and by done by 2023.

Work also began recently a new interchange to fix the congestion caused by the traffic lights at the intersection of State Highway 2 and SH58 in Hutt Valley. Plans are also in the pipeline for a similar interchange on SH2 at Melling.

But inside confines of Wellington city, it's a different story.

Most major projects are on hold because of the New Zealand Transport Agency's failed attempt to get resource consent for a 265-metre long Basin Reserve flyover.

This forced the agency to hit the reset button on a solution to the congestion afflicting the Basin Reserve, meaning a lengthy period of development and consultation and no foreseeable construction start date.

The same goes for the inner-city projects that were programmed to follow the flyover. They include duplicate Mt Victoria and Terrace tunnels, as well as the widening of Ruahine St and Wellington Rd.

A fourth northbound lane on the Wellington urban motorway is expected to be open by May 2016.

Cycleways

In September, the council signed off on a $101 million plan to build new cycle lanes across the capital over the next 20 years, with $30m being spent in the first three years to really get the programme going.

The council's cause was helped by the Government announcing a special $100m urban cycleways fund prior to the last election, which the capital managed to secure a decent chunk of. It means the taxpayer will fund about two-thirds of the capital's cycleways.

The first signs of visible progress were also seen in Island Bay this year as work began on a controversial $1.7 million cycleway through the suburb.

A $35 million cycleway linking Wellington and the Hutt Valley along the seaward side of the Hutt rail line was also confirmed in November.

Flood Protection

A major piece of work to future-proof Lower Hutt's town centre from a 1-in-440-year flood by strengthening the stopbanks lining the Hutt River and widening the river channel is also full steam ahead.

Greater Wellington Regional councillors decided their preferred course of action this week, which will cost $143m and require 75 properties in Pharazyn and Marsden streets to be bought and demolished.

The council is working on a preliminary design and timetable but no construction is expected for at least five years.

MOVIE MUSEUM: BY THE NUMBERS

310,000 people expected to visit the movie museum during first three years

1100 delegates will be able to fit into the convention centre

483 new jobs created by the combined museum and convention centre

440 jobs created by construction of the dual facility

$134 million to construct the combined museum-convention centre facility

67 new events expected to be generated by the convention centre

$38 million annual boost to GDP once the museum is operational

$36 million in benefits expected from construction of the museum

3 levels to the new facility