We were delighted to recently see the fruits of our labour come to life, with NIWA’s new Hamilton research centre, Tane te Waiora, opening in Kirikiriroa.
While it is some time since we developed NIWA’s National Property Strategy, one of the key recommendations was the development of a new facility in Hamilton, alongside reinvestment in Greta Point, Wellington and Christchurch facilities, as the core Regional Research Centres. While it has taken the best part of eight years to deliver on this strategy (with COVID-19 intervening), it underscores:
- Robust investment decisions (including investment in critical infrastructure like research facilities across our Crown Research Institute’s) need to be informed by long-term ‘property planning’ that aligns with the strategic goals and aspirations of the organisation.
- Setting up projects with this strategic lens helps to guarantee success through implementation, as the principles and needs for investment are enduring and the key stakeholders are enrolled in the outcome.
- In a capex-constrained environment, organisations need to focus their investment on a lesser number of critical facilities and ensure these are designed and configured to provide future flexibility (rather than spreading their investment too thinly across multiple initiatives).
- Translating this investment strategy into a bricks and mortar solution takes many years of planning, approvals, design and construction to bring to life.
National Property Strategy
TwentyTwo initiated the Property Strategy in 2016 by working with Chief Executive John Morgan, the Senior Leadership Team and wider operational NIWA team to identify the organisation’s future aspirations and how changes to NIWA’s property portfolio could best support NIWA’s future.
Through a process of discovery and engagement, we built a strong strategic case for change validating the risks and need for reinvestment in the current assets and charting a course to allow NIWA to reinvest in the three core regional research sites, among other recommendations. This foundational work helped inform the subsequent business cases and investment approvals required.
As part of this initial work, we also assessed, alongside Beca, the condition of the current operational sites and facilities in Hamilton, Wellington and Christchurch to determine whether they could be used to meet future requirements.
This led to a National Property Strategy that recommended what sites and facilities NIWA should keep and invest in, what sites should be disposed of and what new sites and facilities were required to meet future needs. Future-focused detailed briefs were created to identify the upgrades required to ensure the three NIWA operational sites were also fit for the future.
Tane te Waiora (NIWA Hamilton)
The laboratories contain a mix of temperature-controlled rooms, transitional and non-transitional open-plan laboratories and enclosed laboratories where the mechanical requirements were more specialised.