The ArtsPost building on Victoria St needs to be upgraded to at least 33 per cent of the New Building Standards (NBS) by 2019 to ensure resistance against future earthquakes.
This comes just weeks after the Hamilton Central Library was closed at short notice because it was found to require a structural upgrade to mitigate risks of collapse in an earthquake.
Hamilton City Council had an initial seismic survey completed on ArtsPost in 2009, since then it has been considered to have an NBS rating of 26 per cent.
Council said a funding provision of $2.6 million had been set aside in the current 10-Year Plan, covering the 2017/18 and 2018/19 financial years.
The money will be used to undertake strengthening works for ArtsPost, and if the allocated budget is not sufficient to complete the reinforcement, staff will be able to apply to council for additional funding.
"In preparation for these works the council is undertaking a Detailed Seismic Assessment in this financial year to give more accurate information on the likely performance of the ArtsPost building in an earthquake and to confirm what exact work needs to be done," said council's GM community Lance Vervoort.
"Detailed design of the required work will follow the preparation of the Detailed Seismic Assessment. This design will also need to take into consideration the heritage value of the building given its heritage status as a listed building."
Council said an independent structural engineer performed a visual inspection of ArtsPost following the Kaikoura earthquake in November 2016, and found the quake had not reduced the reliability of the building.
The ArtsPost building is legally compliant, and council has no plans to close it at this stage.
Hamilton City councillor Dave Macpherson said ArtsPost is "probably not the last thing we're going to have to look at" in terms of strengthening under the NBS.
"The ArtsPost building is a bit more historic, shall we say, than the central library, and I'm in favour of looking after that so that we can keep it into the future," said Macpherson.
"I would also say that the Government needs to look into giving a greater degree of support for public facilities like those. If it's always up to ratepayers, they're going to get tired of spending so much money pretty quickly. Council has got deep pockets, but not that much deeper."
Macpherson said Hamilton does not currently have a large number of heritage and public buildings that fall into the category of requiring strengthening, but given constant increases in the building standards, the number of at-risk buildings in Hamilton could rise in the future.
"It's all very well the Government sitting there on its surpluses, but this is an issue that quite a few councils and other organisations around the country are facing," said Macpherson.
"I support us doing the work on the ArtsPost, but I also say we need to be hitting up the Government to make a greater contribution in this year."