New Zealand-first $200m Education-Arts Hub On The Cards For Whangārei

Friday, 3 January 2025, 2:56 pm
Article: Susan Botting - Local Democracy Reporter

A New Zealand-first $200 million tertiary knowledge, education and arts (KEA) hub is shaping up for Whangārei, with hopes it could bring huge gains for the region.

The planned hub will be based around the former Whangārei District Council (WDC) Forum North headquarters, which has been in only partial use since the council vacated the building for its new civic facility in 2023.

The University of Auckland signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with WDC in August. Te Pūkenga also has an MoU. Discussions with other providers are underway.

The KEA hub could be up to five-stories high and cover an area the size of a rugby field in the city’s south-west corner.

Whangārei Mayor Vince Cocurullo said the new hub was a major step forward for Te Tai Tokerau.

“This isn’t just another project – it’s a cornerstone for our region’s future. It’s about investing in people, building up our industries and making Whangārei a place where talent thrives and opportunities abound,” Cocurullo said.

“The KEA hub will bring together education, job training and creative activities all in one place. It’s a project designed to lift our region and give people the tools they need to succeed right here at home.”

Backers say it will radically revitalise the look and feel of Whangārei’s city centre by attracting hundreds of tertiary students into town.

The hub, which is in its early planning stages, could be fully operational by 2036.

A health simulator and education centre is scheduled to be the first cab off the rank in the new knowledge, education and arts (KEA) hub, with completion set for 2026.

The project gained $250,000 in seed funding from the Transpower fund set up for Northland after its pylon fell over, wiping out power to the region.

The KEA hub project has been backed by Te Tai Tokerau local government leaders through the Northland Mayoral Forum, which Mayor Cocurullo also chairs.

The hub recognised that Whangārei and Northland’s population was forecast to double in size to regionally 400,000 people in the next 30 years, Cocurullo said.

WDC had also already put aside $10 million of ratepayers’ money towards Forum North repairs and renovations.

Cocurullo said central government would potentially be involved in the project along with other operators.

The new facility would see between 2000 and 3000 students enrolled at any one time at the KEA hub in Whangārei - and its outlying Kaitāia, Kerikeri, Ngāwha and Dargaville campuses.

The University of Auckland is the hub project lynchpin.

University of Auckland vice-chancellor Professor Dawn Freshwater described the future plans as innovative.

“We are excited by the potential of the proposed knowledge precinct and being part of the education opportunities that it will create for the city and region,” Freshwater said.

The KEA hub will centralise the tertiary infrastructure and services needed for a range of educators to share.

This potentially includes some of the University of Auckland’s faculty of medical and health sciences’ medical, nursing, pharmacy and optometry study aspects which are currently offered from its Alexander Street Whangarei campus, Whangārei hospital’s clinical campus and includes working with GP clinics.

The university’s teacher training, which has also operated out of the same Alexander Street campus, is also understood to be part of KEA hub plans.

KEA hub project steering board chairman Graeme Kerr said the hub had attracted strong interest from Northland and beyond, including from central government.

Improved tertiary training pathways were essential for boosting the region and its economic health.

Kerr said almost 60% of Northland’s 2250 school leavers in 2022 did not do any tertiary education, or were part of tertiary courses that did not increase their lifetime’s earning capacity beyond the first two years after study or training.

Only 350 of that year’s school leavers had gone to university, he said.

Kerr said the new model would provide locally-based options via campuses at Katāia, Kerikeri, Ngāhwa and Dargaville that could feed on to the Whangārei KEA campus and/or university.

A 300-bed student accommodation facility is also part of the plan’s mix.

Kerr said among those he had been working closely with were Te Kahu o Taonui (Northland Iwi Chairs Forum) chair Harry Burkhardt on the project.

The hub will be designed so a range of operators can use the facilities it provides.

Local Democracy Reporting Northland understands tertiary education currently offered via Te Pukenga’s NorthTec campus is in line of sight for being shifted to the KEA hub.

Te Pukenga and NorthTec have both been contacted for comment.

Northland Regional Council is understood to have expressed support, its Whangārei headquarters close to Forum North.

Cocurullo said work towards the new hub is currently at an embryonic stage.

Potential operators were looking at costings and doing due diligence ahead of the project’s next steps.

The university expects to complete due diligence by February, before making a decision on the project.

Cocurullo said work was currently being done to investigate what needed to be done with some parts of Forum North towards the new hub, including costings for renovation versus demolition.

Whangārei’s proposed new $45 million-plus lyric theatre is a key part of the new hub to operated alongside the Capitaine Bougainville theatre and exhibition hall which will remain.

WDC has already set aside $6.3 million of ratepayers' money for the theatre’s seed funding. The trust has to date $2.5 million set aside towards the theatre’s costings.

Forum North Trust chair Lachie McLean said his group was excited about the interest the university was showing in the lyric theatre.

McLean said his group had been pushing for a new theatre for 40 years. Forum North was built in 1981, its Capitaine Bougainville theatre was the smallest of its type in a New Zealand provincial city and built only as a temporary stopgap to replace the city’s 700 seat Old Town Hall theatre.

Costings for the new lyric theatre were now being drawn up.

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