When I moved to Tauranga in November 2021 to establish Rubix's presence in the Bay of Plenty, the growth was already obvious. What I didn't fully appreciate then was the scale that growth would eventually reach. Almost five years on, the city centre is being revitalised, new communities are being planned on its edges, and civic, housing and port projects are moving through the pipeline at a scale that will shape this region for decades to come.
A city centre finally taking shape
For years, Tauranga's CBD was talked about as underdone, a city centre that hadn't kept pace with the growth happening around it. That is quickly changing with one of the region's biggest urban regeneration projects. Te Manawataki o Te Papa, the council's $306 million civic precinct, is now firmly in construction, with the new library and community hub due to open in October 2026 and the museum and civic whare following in 2028. Add the new courthouse, commercial office developments, student accommodation and a new hotel, and the CBD is in the middle of what council figures put at more than half a billion dollars of construction activity.
What excites me most is that after years of planning, Tauranga is maturing into a city centre that is a hub for business and where people can live and spend time in, instead of just passing through. You can already see it working thanks to the new CBD playground drawing families into town who might otherwise have gone elsewhere. I also think this level of concentrated civic, commercial and residential development creates its own momentum. Public investment gives the private sector the confidence to follow.
For the Bay of Plenty, that matters. Tauranga is the region's largest economic centre, and a stronger CBD strengthens the wider regional economy. I expect this wave of investment to deliver a city centre that's busier, more diverse and genuinely more valuable to the people and businesses who call Tauranga home.
Tauriko West and a region planning for the long term
Away from the city centre, the more significant shift for our sector is happening at Tauriko. The rezoning of Tauriko West in 2025 unlocked land for up to 4,000 new homes, with the first expected from 2027, alongside new local centres and the transport upgrades needed to support them. It's one of the largest planned communities in the country, sitting alongside a Tauriko Business Estate that keeps growing off the back of the Port's expansion.
What stands out to me is the scale of infrastructure being planned alongside the housing. This isn't just another tranche of homes on Tauranga's western edge. Council and developers are planning the employment, services, transport connections and community infrastructure needed to support thousands of additional residents. Done well, I think that creates a more self-sufficient growth area and takes some of the pressure off the rest of the city.
The Port's own expansion adds to that momentum. Port of Tauranga has a five-year, $605 million capital programme underway, including berth extensions at Sulphur Point and Mount Maunganui, and dredging to accommodate larger vessels from 2027. As New Zealand's largest port and a key gateway for the upper North Island, decisions made there ripple through the whole region, shaping freight and logistics land, roading, and housing demand well beyond Tauranga itself.
Together, the civic precinct, Tauriko West and the Port's expansion are building capacity this region has never had before: a more intensive city centre, thousands of new homes and jobs on Tauranga's western edge, and a port ready for bigger vessels. That's the kind of growth that sets a region up for the next decade.
A track record built on trust, not scale
Over the past five years, our education sector work has formed the backbone of what we've delivered in the Bay of Plenty. It's a sector that demands a real understanding of live sites, tight calendars and the communities affected by the work. Delivering well in that environment has given us a strong foothold in the region and a reputation with education clients that we're building on.
That local work sits alongside the wider capability Rubix brings to this region. We carry close to two decades of specialist experience in complex building remediation, work we continue to deliver across the North Island while growing our presence in the Bay of Plenty. Remediation teaches you to see the whole life of a building rather than just the build phase. That long-view thinking, knowing what a building or asset needs to perform for decades, is exactly what this region needs as its civic, infrastructure and education projects grow in scale and complexity.
What we are building towards
Our ambition for the next phase is to grow our presence in the Bay of Plenty and take on the higher value work this region is now generating, at the same scale and calibre we already deliver in markets like Auckland, Northland and Wellington. What makes Rubix unique is the combination of a national platform, where real experience across complex property and infrastructure projects can be called upon paired with a regional presence that means we're here with boots on the ground, invested in this market for the long term. Five years ago, I moved here to help build something from scratch, now I get to help shape what this region becomes.
Hero image of Te Papa Peninsula courtesy of Kiwi Droneography, sourced from the Bay of Plenty Brand Library.
