Tauranga Civic Square
Tauranga’s regional renaissance is a chance to breathe new life into civic facilities
While many regions struggle to maintain their populations, Tauranga is experiencing a regional renaissance with a population explosion. While this is great for the economy it is struggling to keep up with significant growing pains because civic facilities haven’t been upgraded for many years.
Feeding into the Tauranga Civic Square project are weather-tightness, seismic and building services issues in some civic buildings. This in turn has impacted the productivity of the Tauranga City Council (TDC) due to the logistics of multisite operations.
These issues have presented the community with an opportunity to breathe new life into the heart of the city and provide fit-for-purpose facilities that will serve the people of the Bay of Plenty for generations to come. It will become the foundation of a stronger community.
Tauranga City Council engaged Giblin Group to provide a Funding Assessment of the facilities within the scope of the Civic Space Options Project. The Funding Assessment established which facilities lend themselves to external funding and provide an estimate of how much funding they may attract.
Giblin Group has significant experience in funding community infrastructure projects across New Zealand as well as a thorough understanding of the processes and political climate that shape a project’s journey to completion.
Talking with key stakeholders has been an essential part of the process. Workshopping with facility users enabled the “scope and scale” of the project to be realised. Giblin Group examined “external funding” opportunities for nine potential capital projects Council is investigating through the Civic Space Options Project. The report identified a mix of funding for each project and created a model that prioritised investment and development.
“Jenni did a fantastic job in helping us to secure critical partnerships and funding support for our internationally significant Len Lye Centre project – what’s more we really enjoyed working with her.”
“Giblin Group’s work on the Better Business Case process contributed to the development of a compelling piece of work. This project has created a considerable step change framework for the future of our City.”
“Giblin Group’s knowledge of government practices and procedures on a national and local level is invaluable, and I often find that they are well connected with staff and officials on all levels of Government. Giblin Group scopes their assignments well, provides accurate cost estimates for their services, delivers within the agreed timeframes and always deliver excellent quality work – no project manager can really ask for more!”
“The work that the Giblin Group completed, in collaboration with our staff, was instrumental in the success the project has had in securing significant funding to this key City initiative. In particular we have found the experience of the Giblin Group to been invaluable in seeking funding from a variety of sources in an increasingly challenging environment.”