{"id":541197,"date":"2026-07-24T01:44:18","date_gmt":"2026-07-24T01:44:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/541197\/"},"modified":"2026-07-24T01:44:18","modified_gmt":"2026-07-24T01:44:18","slug":"cost-of-bungled-waikato-bunnings-to-museum-development-revealed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/541197\/","title":{"rendered":"Cost of bungled Waikato Bunnings-to-museum development revealed"},"content":{"rendered":"

Waip\u0101 ratepayers shelled out nearly $3 million on a failed Bunnings transformation project in Te Awamutu.<\/p>\n

By Jordan Smith of Local Democracy Reporting<\/p>\n

After paying $2.05 million to acquire the lease to the former Bunnings Warehouse site in 2021, Waipa District Council spent an additional $721,528 as of July 21, according to finance and commercial director Matt Walker.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis includes costs and expenses relating to ground rent, insurance, outgoings, repairs\/maintenance and fees associated with sub-leasing the property,\u201d Walker said.<\/p>\n

A portion of the costs were offset, with $538,670 gained from rental income in the same period.<\/p>\n

\"Rough<\/p>\n

Rough sleepers have been seen occupying the site which has been vacant since May 2025. (Source: Local Democracy Reporting)<\/p>\n

The saga has garnered strong commentary from ratepayers and prominent figures alike after plans to transform the site into Te Ara Wai district museum’s new home were canned.<\/p>\n

The issue was reignited when Mayor Mike Pettit defended council\u2019s decision to simply go for the highest bidder.<\/p>\n

“If it’s something commercial that really is not the best fit for the CBD [and] there’s something that is a much better fit for the community of Te Awamutu… then I’d be hoping councillors would look at the social benefit,\u201c he said.<\/p>\n

\"Waipā<\/p>\n

Waip\u0101 District Council mayor Mike Pettit. (Source: Local Democracy Reporting)<\/p>\n

Taxpayer Union\u2019s Tory Relf told Waikato Times that council should \u201cstick to the basics\u201d and do its job.<\/p>\n

\u201cCouncil\u2019s job is to secure the best deal for ratepayers, not mark competing bids against a subjective wish-list.<\/p>\n

“These subjective criteria risk ratepayers taking a financial hit so councillors can pursue priorities that have nothing to do with selling the property.\u201d<\/p>\n

Te Awamutu locals have also chimed in about the site, with some wanting a high-performance sports centre to support \u201cgun young athletes\u201d and others yearning for Bunnings to return.<\/p>\n

The morning’s headlines in 90 seconds, including Ryan Fox arrives back in NZ, and the political heckle that\u2019s going viral. (Source: 1News)<\/p>\n

Local Jenny Smith questioned whether ratepayers would get anything out of the sale, since they contributed to purchasing the site.<\/p>\n

\u201cAre we going to get some of that back? Or will it just go back into council’s pot of money, and then what?”<\/p>\n

The land is owned by Parish of St John Te Awamutu Trust, with the open tender process now underway.<\/p>\n

\u2013 LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Waip\u0101 ratepayers shelled out nearly $3 million on a failed Bunnings transformation project in Te Awamutu. By Jordan…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":541198,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[138,111,139,69,213],"class_list":["post-541197","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-business","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/541197","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=541197"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/541197\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/541198"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=541197"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=541197"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=541197"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}