Tauranga City Councillors start the year off by being persuaded to hand over free land and waive fees for the development of a tertiary institute in the central city.

Council owned land in Durham Street, currently a Bay of Plenty Polytechnic car park, is wanted for use by the tertiary partnership of the polytechnic, the University of Waikato and the Te Whare Wananga o Awanuiarangi.

The car park on Durham Street that could possibly be redeveloped.

What the tertiary partnership hopes for is for it to be the first facility in New Zealand designed to deliver a university campus experience in a central city partnership – with a polytechnic and a wananga.

To succeed, the proposal requires a joint approach and if the Tauranga City Council doesn't provide the land, the other parties' funding initiatives for the $55 million project will probably fail.

Key parties include the tertiary partnership, the business community, the Bay of Plenty Regional Council, TECT and economic development agencies.

With the site secured, the project will then require $55.5 million between 2012 and 2026.

This will be made up of $43.5m in contributions from parties, funding contributions from parties of $43.5m, partnership generated funds of $5m and external interest bearing debt of $7m.

If construction starts this year, stage one will open in 2015 for 500 full time students, but with capacity for 700.

Construction of stage two would take place in 2019 to create capacity for 1000 full time students, followed by stage three in 2025/26 to create capacity for 1500 students by 2032.

The 0.4 hectare car park donation by the city council will enable construction of stages one and two.

Further land would be sought for stage three, which will be funded from other sources.

In a report to Tauranga City Councillors on the issue, the initiative is a response to a demonstrated need for further tertiary facilities in the Bay of Plenty, and the inability of the tertiary institutions to provide them.

Tertiary institutions do not have the resources to establish new facilities, government capital funding is not available and the capping of domestic student numbers limits tertiary provision to current levels.

The Bay of Plenty has identified the need for increased tertiary education and research to address critical labour and skill shortages and achieve its economic and social goals.

A demographic study by Professor Natalie Jackson shows there will soon be fewer young people than are leaving secondary school to enter tertiary training or the workforce.

She says the problem is magnified in the Bay of Plenty because a large proportion of students leave the region to go to other university cities – while at the same time, many Bay of Plenty industries are facing a serious shortage of people to replace their retiring older employees.

For the initiative to proceed, the land has to be secured at no cost and regional funding obtained for the construction costs.

Initial discussions were held with likely partners last year.

Formal approaches are now being made to the funding agencies.

The council is being asked to provide the land and waive parking impact fees and development contributions.

The annual plan meeting agenda also carries a recommendation the council decision be

included in the draft Ten Year Plan for community consultation.