Tiaki Wai expands to new $600k-a-year waterfront office
Friday, 26 June 2026
Millions of dollars in new staff means Wellington’s incoming water company is expanding into a of $600,000-a-year block of waterfront offices - and there is little shareholding politicians can do about it.
The new overspill office at 81 The Esplanade in Petone, Lower Hutt is near the existing Wellington Water office. Both will become Tiaki Wai’s space on July 1. Both have harbour views with the new building just across the road from Petone Beach.
Wellington Water ceases to be on July 1, when it is taken over by Tiaki Wai - a new council and mana whenua-owned utility faced with dealing with decades of under-investment in the region’s water infrastructure. It’s key differences to Wellington Water are an ability to charge homes directly and being able to borrow large sums to share the cost of works over multiple generations.
It estimates it needs to hugely increase work and spend about $25 billion over three decades.
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Wellington Water chief corporate services Ian Georgeson, soon to move to Tiaki Wai, said the extra office gave the organisation about 100 extra desks. The current office, on Victoria St, was at capacity.
“Wellington Water has been growing recently, mainly due to bringing certain previously outsourced functions in-house to deliver better value for money,” Georgeson said.
“Further workforce expansion is expected as we transition to Tiaki Wai and take on additional responsibilities.”
Tiaki Wai will take on additional customer service, as well as new billing and borrowing responsibilities.
Tiaki Wai’s spillover offices take the entire ground floor and two thirds of the first floor of the Esplanade building. Rent is $607,602 a year. The fitout was being paid for by the landlord.
An estimated 51 new roles are expected in the coming year and a further 100 existing vacancies will also be filled. The cost has not yet been budgeted but, using an average Wellington salary of about $91,000, the cost of 51 would be $4.6m and the full cost of the 151 would be about $13.7m.
Wellington Water Committee chairperson Ros Connelly said Tiaki Wai was run by a professional board of directors. Under the Government’s Local Water Done Well legislation politicians had no control over operational matters, she said.
But Local Government Minister Simon Watts said it was a matter for Tiaki Wai’s management, board and “shareholding councils”.
“The Government has been very clear in its priority that water services should be cost effective as well as flexible, financially sustainable, and accountable, and that councils and the communities they serve should be making decisions about how their water services meet the Government’s objectives,” Watts said.
Wellington Ratepayers’ Alliance spokesperson James Ross said, “just because you have ‘water’ in the name not all of your offices need expensive waterfront views”.
Tiaki Wai seemed to be slipping into its predecessor’s “culture of waste”, he said.
“First it was spending $420,000 advertising a monopoly. Then it was pitching water meters at 10 times the cost Auckland pays.
“Now it’s picking up where Wellington Water’s bloat left off with a new office for 100 more desks, and a rent bill equal to 254 households’ annual water bills.”
The Post in June revealed Tiaki Wai had budgeted $420,000 for an campaign so people knew what it was.
Tiaki Wai chief executive Michael Brewster’s $645,000 salary puts him ahead of Wellington mayor Andrew Little, Wellington City Council chief executive Matt Prosser and Prime Minister Christopher Luxon.