Tauranga Mayor Stuart Crosby is inviting ideas on how to re-develop the city's civic campus on Willow Street as the workshopping process for the site gets underway.

'Anyone can approach us with their thoughts at any stage of this whole process,” explains Stuart, 'so we welcome all input.

The view from Willow Street/Hamilton Street. Photos: Supplied.

'Myself and the council see this as a great opportunity to do some revitalisation work in the city centre.

'We are at the early stages, but we have started with a blue-sky approach. We have no pre-determined outcomes at the moment, but by March or April next year we will start narrowing down our options for the Annual Plan.”

The Community Action Group presented its thoughts to councillors a month ago, and has concept sketches posted on its website showing a redeveloped site which has retained Baycourt and the library, minus the mould-infested buildings now facing Willow Street.

'Good on them for putting some thoughts together,” says Stuart, 'but there are others as well.”

CAG chairman Paul Adams was among several people from the private sector invited along to the city councillor's workshopping process last week.

'We are going through a very robust process,” admits Stuart, 'and our council is resolved to do a very in depth business case to the accommodation of our staff and, more importantly, what could be leveraged off that.

'We are also looking for interest from other parties. Two other designing groups have come to us with initial thoughts, and we're going to meet other developers in a couple of weeks, so we are open.

'When we get to a certain stage, we will have a very robust public communication and engagement plan. But it's too early for that. We are just gathering information at the moment.”

The council is still working on defining the problem, before it moves on to looking at the opportunities, says Stuart.

The CAG plan includes rebuilding the council over the former TV3 site and tavern site.

'Our plan is to have this work done by early next year so we can start narrowing down our options and accommodate our staff.

'What buildings will be required? Will we own them? Will we get someone else to build it if necessary and lease it back? All the decision making will actually happen next year.”

The Civic Amenities Group is proposing to build a new Civic Centre on a direct cost basis, funded by a Community Bond, allowing ratepayers, community trusts and individuals to invest in the ownership to avoid ratepayers being burdened with additional debt.

'The interesting part about Paul and his concept is that you can reduce the cost significantly about the approach, and I totally support him on that,” says Stuart.

'They are very experienced in reducing costs and delivering facilities like Waipuna Hospice, Riding for the Disabled and also the rebuild of St Johns.

'So they are well experienced and they are certainly in the mix in terms of conversations, as will a lot of others be.”

Tauranga City Council has $8 million in the budget for a waterfont and CBD upgrade over the next five years. It also has around $30 million in the budget for car parking and some early money for the civic centre campus.

'When you put all that together, our view is we can leverage off that to get a lot more done by the private sector and other groups,” says Stuart.