New Waikato theatre in line for $25m
They’d seen the dream of a $75 million riverside theatre with a state-of-the-art auditorium.
On Monday, Hamilton city councillors had to decide whether to hand over $25m towards a replacement for the now-defunct Founders Theatre.
They voted 9-3 to put money for the Waikato Regional Theatre in the city’s draft long-term plan, and the public will soon have a say on that call.
City council will put its hand out to its neighbours to gather $5m towards its contribution, but would shoulder a yearly $1.1m operating contribution itself.
‘‘Doing nothing about a theatre in Hamilton is not an option at this time,’’ councillor Paula Southgate said in debate on Monday.
‘‘We don’t have one.’’
"Doing nothing about a theatre in Hamilton is not an option at this time."
Councillor Paula Southgate
However, she wanted to see more progress in talks with neighbouring councils and indications of support in their proposed long-term plans.
Pushing for a regional targeted rate to collect $10m was part of King’s suggestion, which councillors voted through.
It asked chief executive Richard Briggs to keep working with Waikato Regional Council on that rate, and flagged that about $5m of what would be collected would come from Hamilton ratepayers.
City council hopes that $5m would go towards its $25m contribution.
The balance would be a mix of debt funding, money from selling Waikato Innovation Park, and a grant from Vibrant Hamilton Trust.
The city would also need to stump up $1.1m a year in operating costs for 20 years. Huge numbers of people had submitted to the previous council asking about a replacement for Founders, Cr Dave Macpherson said.
Those people were expecting council to provide the $30m it agreed to in principle, he said.
‘‘The overall costs have increased but our $30m share hasn’t. In fact, it’s gone down because our mayor and some of the senior managers have been doing some work through the Mayoral Forum to try and reduce that.’’
Deputy Mayor Martin Gallagher liked the regional rate idea because it meant maybe ‘‘the multimillionaires of Tamahere’’ would contribute.
‘‘Ordinary working people in Frankton and Dinsdale have to pay all the time, all the time, but our multimillionaire friends in Tamahere – and I love my multimillionaire friends in Tamahere – they get to pay as well.’’
In future, Hamiltonians will need to be prepared to contribute to regional assets such as facilities at Karapiro and Maungatautari, he said.
The three councillors who voted against the motion were Mark Bunting, James Casson, and Garry Mallett.
Casson said he couldn’t support the project in the face of a 15.5 per cent rate rise.
Other performance venues – such as Claudelands and the Meteor – are doing well, he said.
Bunting supported the theatre but said council could do better with the motion. Ratepayers wouldn’t be expecting 20 years of the $1.1m-a-year operating grant, he said, and other councils should help with that too.
There was ‘‘naff all’’ benefit in the theatre idea for Mallett, who said it wouldn’t have an economic spinoff.
The theatre project began after the unsafe Founders Theatre closed and Momentum Waikato stepped in to plan an alternative.
Momentum Waikato’s vision is for an auditorium that can welcome a ballet company or symphony orchestra, bordered by more casual performance spaces on the site of the former Hamilton Hotel.
It also hoped a boutique art hotel will be privately developed on the site. The theatre is due to open in July 2021.