Town Hall faces fresh hurdle as council decisions tipped to hit revenue

Thursday, 2 April 2026

Wellington’s revamped Town Hall is tipped to start on the back foot after the council awarded a bar contract to a third party and gave the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra first pick for 135 days a year.

“In reality, they are being set up to fail,” said Wellington City councillor Karl Tiefenbacher, who sits on the WellingtonNZ board.

The council-owned agency runs venues including Te Whare Whakarauika The Town Hall when it opens.

The Town Hall, closed since 2013 due to seismic issues and now scheduled to reopen after major upgrades in early 2027, had a $147 million cost blowout in 2023, pushing the total price tag to more than $300m.

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Tiefenbacher said deals around bar operations and the NZSO getting first pick of dates appeared to have been made by council staff without input from elected members. Yet any losses would be blamed on WellingtonNZ, he said.

And it would be ratepayers who picked up the tab for any operating loss, he said.

Under questioning from Tiefenbacher at a council workshop this week, WellingtonNZ chief executive Mark Oldershaw confirmed the decisions were made by council staff.

The two key decisions, which Oldershaw said would leave the Town Hall about $1.3m behind each year, included WellingtonNZ losing the contract to run the venue’s cafe and bar, with the council awarding it to a third party. That alone represented an annual loss of about $500,000.

The remainder was due to the NZSO having first rights to 135 days a year, which limited WellingtonNZ’s ability to market the venue for other events. The orchestra had not yet supplied which dates it wanted the hall for, he said.

Both issues had been flagged with the council, Oldershaw said.

But NZSO chief executive Marc Feldman said the organisation had been “highly communicative” about its 135-day lease and sent proposed 2027 dates in June 2025.

There was a “challenge system” if other promoters were competing for dates, he said.

Council chief operating officer James Roberts said the Town Hall would not run at an operating loss once income from anchor tenants and other revenue was taken into account.

The contract with the NZSO gave it the use of the auditorium for 135 days a year but on all other days, including any of the 135 it didn’t take up, it would be available and promoted to other users, he said.

He would not say who the selected bar operator was.

'The Town Hall will be home to the NZSO and Victoria University of Wellington's School of Music, creating a national music centre that sits alongside a full range of other events and hires,“ he said.

“This is a relatively unique operating model that anchors these organisations in the Town Hall which, along with its auditorium, now hosts two other performance venues, recording studios, teaching spaces and practice rooms.”

Deputy mayor Ben McNulty said every Wellingtonian was paying $1300 each for the restoration of the Town Hall and it was “just unacceptable” if it had an operating loss.

He confirmed the decision to tender the bar contract to a third party was made by staff. The council voted to fix the Town Hall knowing the orchestra would get priority but the decision around days was also made by staff, he said.