Planning a new Performing Arts Centre - 2016-2018
Founders Theatre, the Waikato’s flagship performance venue, was closed by the Hamilton City Council (HCC) for safety reasons in March 2016. The cost of repair, with no significant modernisation, was then estimated at $25 million.
Momentum Waikato approached the Council in July 2016 and proposed to replace Founders with a new Waikato Regional Theatre (WRT), starting with a strategic review to define its specifications and identify the best location. This offer was based on Momentum Waikato committing to raise the funds required from public, community, business and private sources.
The Council agreed and soon after the Waikato Regional Theatre Governance Panel was formed. Its first task, in partnership with international theatre designers Charcoalblue, was a strategic review of potential sites, which was completed and delivered as the WRT Location Report in May 2017.
The 25 locations initially considered had included the University, Hamilton Gardens, Claudelands Event Centre and various spots in the CBD. The Founders site was seriously considered but didn’t score highly on a number of counts, most critically for not fulfilling the Council’s established urban design and zoning goals.
A short list of seven sites were then further investigated, including upper Grantham St and Garden Place. The preferred location was finally identified as the Hamilton Hotel site on the South End of Victoria St, at the heart of the city’s ‘creative precinct’, as it scored the highest in the report’s analysis.
In August 2017 the WRT Phase One Design Report was produced by Charcoalblue and NZ civic architects Jasmax. It describes the parameters and considerations for building a world-class theatre on the Hamilton Hotel site capable of hosting international calibre performing arts events.
This proposal was then presented at public and stakeholder consultation meetings run by Creative Waikato and The Stakeholder Agency later in 2017. Feedback on functionality, accessibility, location and the benefits to the wider community was recorded, and just over 200 people then made formal written submissions, all of which was subsequently published in the WRT Consultation Summary.
During that process Andy Hayles, Charcoalblue’s London Managing Partner, presented to a couple of hundred locals at The Atrium in October 2017, outlining their track record and the WRT proposal in his WRT presentation slideshow.
That consultation process informed changes then made to the Theatre plans in Charcoalblue’s subsequent WRT Concept Design Report and Presentation released in March 2018, the most significant being expanding its seating capacity to 1300.
Meanwhile, in October 2017 the Theatre project had received its first formal financial commitment, with Trust Waikato granting $15 million. Following the delivery of the WRT Concept Design Report and a presentation to the councils, the HCC formally committed the $25 million it would have spent on Founders, and the Waikato Regional Council then added $5 million in June 2018.
The WRT Preliminary Design Report was completed in August 2018, which provided the detailed plans required for consenting and tendering. This was followed in December 2018 by the Developed Design Report and Presentation, which provided the final detailed renderings for the Theatre’s design.
Gathering the resources and overcoming the challenges - 2019-2021
The Waikato Regional Property Trust (WRPT), which will ultimately own the Theatre, was founded in October 2018, replacing the Theatre Governance Panel as the project driver, with several members of that group crossing over to become trustees of the new entity.
Through 2019 the focus was on the resource and building consents, securing sponsorship pledges from local businesses, and negotiating the central government portion of the funding.
In November 2019 Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced to a crowd of supporters in Embassy Park that the Provincial Growth Fund was putting $12 million into the construction of the Theatre. This took the funds raised to the preliminary target of $69 million, marking the point went ‘live’.
This allowed the WRPT to formally start the procurement processes for construction. Fosters was then awarded the contract at the end of March 2020, but the following Covid lockdowns then delayed the development of the build budget.
Meanwhile, as required by the Heritage Act element of the resource consent process, Heritage New Zealand had approved the plan to retain the Hamilton Hotel frontage while rebuilding everything behind it.
However, on the key archaeological matter Heritage NZ initially declined the authority to proceed due to uncertainty on the clearance between the Theatre and the Hua o te Atua urupaa on the adjacent riverbank, a ruling made because the area of the pre-colonisation cemetery was insufficiently defined in the city’s District Plan.
Momentum Waikato had been engaged with mana whenua hapu Ngaati Wairere since 2017, via the representative groups Te Haa o Te Whenua o Kirikiriroa (THaWK) and Nga Mana Toopu o Kirikiriroa (NaMToK), and that Heritage NZ decision set entrain formal negotiations involving all the parties.
In June 2020 NaMToK carried out a tapu-lifting ceremony on the site and options for a way forward were tabled. Early in these talks with the mana whenua and Heritage NZ, the WRPT decided to move the Theatre’s footprint eight meters to the west, towards Victoria St and away from the riverbank.
This move satisfied Heritage NZ that any risk to the urupaa had been removed. Despite this, NaMToK then appealed this decision in the Environment Court, to dispute that THaWK were authorised representatives of Ngaati Wairere as mana whenua.
The court’s response was that it was up to the hapuu itself to decide which group spoke for it and that Momentum and the WRPT had properly consulted both THaWK and NaMToK. The ensuing discussions led to a legal resolution just before Christmas 2020, with all parties agreeing on the site-specific issues.
Pressing go on the site work – 2021
Moving the building away from the river required the resource and building consents to be revisited, which was completed in February 2021.
Only then were the WRPT and Fosters able to enter into negotiations on the construction price and the final plans, a process that culminated with the signing of the construction contract in August 2021, with an updated total project cost of $80 million.
Site work got underway in September 2021, with a site office established and perimeter fences going up. Demolition of the modern shops on Victoria Street and the dismantling of Embassy Park, including the removal of the Riff Raff statue, following soon after.
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern then returned to the Theatre site in November 2021 to perform the project’s official Sod Turning.
Demolition, excavation and construction 2022-2024
Site preparation began with the systematic ‘soft stripping’ of heritage items and native timbers from within the Hamilton Hotel, for re-use in the new complex. Satellite buildings were removed, with the resulting excavations under the watchful eye of the mana whenua and Heritage NZ.
A large steel frame was installed to support the old Hotel’s French ‘Beaux Arts’ façade in early 2022, the largest such retention ever carried out in the Waikato, allowing the remainder of the building behind it to be demolished.
Earthworks got underway in June 2022, with piles and retaining walls installed as digging progressed over the following months. When Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern returned for a third visit in November 2022, she looked down at a large sand pit and the beginnings of the steel latticework.
Two tower cranes were put up at the end of 2022. The basement floors were laid in March-June 2023, and from that point construction became a process of alternating steel assembly and concrete pouring.
By February 2024 the structural framework was at street level and poking up from behind the supported façade. The concrete structure that makes up the bulk to the building was largely complete by the middle of the year, with the shear walls completed and the blade walls pointing out to the river in place.
In the latter half of 2024 the large steel ‘black box’ fly tower was added to the top of the structure. The Hamilton Hotel façade was sufficiently supported by the new building to allow its support frame to be removed and its restoration to get underway, while its roof had been re-tiled.
At the end of 2024 the installation of the internal elements such as doors, insulation and services was well under way, and most of the roof was in place.
Share the Stage campaign 2022-2024
Momentum Waikato formally launched the Share the Stage fundraising campaign in May 2022 with an event at the Theatre site that included the first public screening of the Share the Stage promo video featuring a range of familiar Waikato faces.
Share the Stage events were then rolled out over the following months, including promotional functions with business groups including the Waikato Chambers of Commerce and the Hamilton Central Business Association, and a well-attended Quiz Night for the performing arts community in July 2022 at The Meteor.
In October a celebratory Share the Stage Showcase featuring a range of local artists was held at Clarence Street Theatre. In December a mural wrap telling the history of the site was added to its perimeter fence.
Fundraising and marketing efforts through 2023 and 2024 saw several medium-sized firms join the ‘Share the Stage Business Collective Support’, and hundreds of seats in the auditorium sponsored by the individuals, families and groups donating via the ‘Take a Seat’ initiative.
Theatre operating company 2022-2024
The Waikato Regional Property Trust started work on setting up the Theatre’s operation in early 2022. In July that year Deborah Nudds and Chris Williams were appointed as independent directors, who together with the trustees, make up its operations board.
Gus Sharp then started as the Theatre’s inaugural General Manager in February 2023. He was tasked with formulating an operational arrangement that met three goals – to bring in a steady stream of touring shows, provide fair and easy community access, and ensure that the building is well maintained and further developed.
After much deliberation and subsequent negotiations by Gus, in December 2024 it was announced that the WRPT had reached agreement with Live Nation, the world’s largest live entertainment company, to manage the Theatre for its first fifteen years of operation. This move is expected to meet and exceed the three operational imperatives described above, promising a bright future for the Theatre once it is completed in 2025.
