At the signing of the MoU between University of Auckland and Whangārei District Council are council chief executive Simon Weston, Whangārei District Mayor Vince Cocurullo, University of Auckland vice-chancellor Professor Dawn Freshwater, and university chief property officer Simon Neale.
At the signing of the MoU between University of Auckland and Whangārei District Council are council chief executive Simon Weston, Whangārei District Mayor Vince Cocurullo, University of Auckland vice-chancellor Professor Dawn Freshwater, and university chief property officer Simon Neale.
A New Zealand-first $200 million tertiary knowledge, education and arts hub is on the cards for Whangārei.
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 under way.
The KEA hub could be up to five storeys high and cover an area the size of a rugby field in the city’s southwest corner.
The new $6 million health simulation and education centre planned for Whangārei. Photo / Supplied via LDR
Whangārei District 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 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.
Whangārei's Forum North was built more than four decades ago in 1981, and now stands largely empty after WDC's exit, save for its Capitaine Bougainville theatre space . Photo / NZME
Future growth
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 the Government would potentially be involved in the project with other operators.
The new facility would have 2000-3000 students enrolled at any one time at the KEA hub in Whangārei – and its outlying Kaitāia, Kerikeri, Ngāwha and Dargaville campuses.
Centralised infrastructure
The University of Auckland is the hub project linchpin.
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 offered from its Alexander St Whangārei 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 St campus, is 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 the 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 undertake 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 Kaitāia, Kerikeri, Ngāwhā 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) chairman 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 offered via Te Pūkenga’s NorthTec campus is in line of sight for being shifted to the KEA hub.
Te Pūkenga 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 was at an embryonic stage.
Potential operators were looking at costings and doing due diligence for 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 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 be operated alongside the Capitaine Bougainville theatre and exhibition hall, which will remain.
WDC has already set aside $6.3m of ratepayers' money for the theatre’s seed funding. The trust has so far $2.5m set aside towards the theatre’s costings.
Forum North Trust chairman Lachie McLean said his group was excited about the interest the university was showing in the lyric theatre.
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 stopgap to replace the city’s 700-seat Old Town Hall theatre.
Costings for the new lyric theatre are now being drawn up.
■ LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.
