7 July 2004
Civic Centre to be another Unitec campus in city’s knowledge revolution
Unitec New Zealand has strengthened its long-term commitment to West Auckland tertiary education by purchasing the
Waitakere City Council’s Civic Centre and some of the land on Waipareira Ave.
The tertiary institution already has a strong presence in the city, with plans for more teaching space to be added to
its existing Ratanui St campus and the construction of the Waitakere Central Library alongside in partnership with the
Council.
Unitec CEO Dr John Webster and Mayor Bob Harvey have acknowledged the decision as further commitment to meeting the
city’s future education needs.
Unitec expects to move into the Waipareira Ave complex in 2007. Dr Webster said that date would meet the needs of both
the Council and Unitec, and help to ensure that the institution could continue to meet the projected needs of one of New
Zealand’s fastest growing cities.
“Even with the planned development of our facilities in the Henderson town centre, we will need extra space in order to
best serve the local community into the future. The Waipareira Ave facilities, with the existing Civic Centre and just
under three hectares of land, will give us the capacity to grow our student load in Waitakere to around 4,500 EFTS.”
He said that the range of programmes offered by Unitec in Waitakere would expand rapidly from 2006 onwards. For example,
within the next few years, he expected to have the Unitec degree programmes in nursing and social practice based in West
Auckland.
“Our new building is easily adaptable for teaching and research. These facilities will give us considerable flexibility
in delivering academic programmes designed or adapted to meet regional needs.”
Dr Webster said the $7.1 million Waipareira Ave deal further cemented the relationship between Unitec and the Waitakere
City Council. “Already a third of our students come from Waitakere City and it is vital that we continue to work in
partnership with the City Council to ensure we are meeting the needs of their constituents.”
Mayor Harvey welcomed Unitec’s long range planning strategy and said it would offer the city’s young people even greater
opportunities to ride the knowledge wave into the jobs of the future. “We are going from a city that had no significant
tertiary opportunities several years ago, to one that will be known as a knowledge city – hopefully in the same positive
way that Dunedin and Palmerston North are known as cities which have grown round their tertiary colleges.”
The Mayor said that, once again, the people of Waitakere had gained the best possible result for their money. “We
haven’t just sold the building. The sale has been maximised. We’ve found a buyer who is offering economic, social and
environmental benefits. Residents should be very pleased because the benefits far exceed just money – they include their
children’s and grandchildren’s futures.”
The sale of the remainder of the Waitakere City Council land in Waipareira Ave is expected to be announced by the end of
the month in a commercial deal that Council officials are describing as an exciting business investment.
ENDS