Council ready to sign contract for Theatre Royal design work
Thursday, 5 June 2025
Four months after confirming it had chosen its preferred lead architects for the redevelopment of Timaru’s Theatre Royal and construction of a new museum, the council says it expects contracts to be signed this week.
On Tuesday, the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) confirmed the council must complete the two projects by December 2026 to remain eligible for a government contribution.
With that deadline just 18 months away, The Timaru Herald asked the council whether a contract had been signed with the lead architects yet.
On Wednesday, Timaru District Council acting group manager community services Paul Cooper responded.
“TDC engaged NB [Newlove Browning Architects]/DLA [Architects] to provide concept and preliminary designs for the Theatre Royal refurbishment under a service level agreement,” Cooper said.
“The contract for the entirety of the Theatre Royal and Heritage Centre Museum development has been negotiated and is ready to be signed this week.”
In December, the council confirmed it ran an invite-only process to find the lead architect via the Government’s free electronic tender service website, Gets.
As the process was done by invite only, information on the role was not available for public viewing. When the council issued tenders for work that were open to the public, details were able to be viewed online, as was the case for the two options listed earlier this year for the redevelopment of Aorangi Park.
At the time, The Timaru Herald spoke to local architect firms that had been invited and planned to submit for the role, one that was invited but did not plan to do so, and another that had not been invited.
On December 23, The Timaru Herald asked the council a number of questions about its decision to tender by invite only.
On February 12, the council’s group manager corporate and communications Stephen Doran responded, and said 11 architects had been issued invitations.
Doran said a Registration of Interest (ROI) process had been selected as the procurement method “as the council had already adopted a concept design”.
“This is an appropriate procurement method ensuring that all local architects would be offered the opportunity to undertake the work.”
He said the council was not aware of any complaints from any potential supplier that had not been invited.
Late last month, the council released the three ROIs it received. They were the joint NB/DLA submission, which was selected, a joint submission by Desmond Prisk Architects and Jasmax, and one from Rushton Architects.
The ROIs show they were each assessed on four criteria — relevant experience and track record (30%), relevant skills (20%), methodology and resources (40%) and capacity to deliver (10%).
During the first council meeting of the year, on February 4, the council’s chief executive Nigel Trainor confirmed the preferred candidate had been chosen, to the surprise of some councillors.
Trainor told councillors the tender evaluation team had made a recommendation, and that had been “signed off”.
At the time, he said they were working on a contract with the unnamed “entity”, which the council later confirmed to be NB Architects, partnering with DLA Architects.
During that meeting, councillor Stu Piddington said he was “a little surprised” to learn that, and said it was a “massive project” and should have gone through the council’s tenders and procurement committee or to the full council “before anyone was appointed”.
Piddington said he was not worried who was appointed as lead architect, but would like to see “a more transparent process for a $24 million project”.