OUR PROJECTS TE MANAWATAKI O TE PAPA

CLIENT: Tauranga City Council
DATE: 2021-2023
STATUS: Investment of $306.3 million was approved by Tauranga City Council in June 2023.

Tauranga’s city centre was failing to deliver the social, cultural, economic and environmental benefits expected of the fifth largest city in New Zealand. Tauranga City Council realised the need to transform Tauranga’s city centre into a community, civic and cultural focal point that will meet its people’s needs and aspirations now, and in the future.

Three key problems had been identified that TCC was looking to address:

1. Poor amenity and a disconnect between the natural and built environments reduce the ability of the city centre to attract locals, visitors and businesses.
2. Failure to meet the growing demand for arts, culture, heritage and manaakitanga threatens the city centre’s ability to grow opportunities and prosper.
3. A lack of visible identity and character reflecting the region’s people and place, which inhibits peoples’ connection and limits opportunities for the city’s stories to be told.

To address these problem TCC commissioned a business case to reconfirm the development of Te Manawataki o Te Papa – a new-build Library and Community Hub, civic whare, museum and exhibition centre on an integrated campus that pays respect to its historic and present-day environment.

WHAT DID WE DO?

Rationale was contracted by Tauranga City Council to provide strategic oversight and technical expertise in the development of a business case for Te Manawataki o Te Papa – a significant investment in community facilities that will become the vibrant cultural heart of Tauranga City. 

Working closely with TCC, the team developed a bespoke process and analytical tools which delivered evidence-based results clearly identifying the significance and multitude of social, cultural, environmental and economic benefits Te Manawataki o Te Papa will create for the city, its residents and the wider subregion. This required sourcing a range of evidential data that provided quality insights for the project. 

The work involved:

• Validation and Evidence Sprint – review of investment history, as well as a validation and update of investment objectives, benefits mapping, and multi-criteria analysis optioneering tool.
• Service Design Optioneering – facilitated workshops to define target markets, market segmentation, product differentiation, and ultimately, the optimal service model for each of the components of the cultural precinct.
• Financial Modelling – development of a model to understand operating costs, lifecycle costs, revenue, and economic benefits.
• Demand modelling – collection and modelling of visitation evidence from a range of different cultural precincts across the country to produce a demand forecast for the precinct. This was closely linked to, and informed, the financial model.