The government of New Zealand has announced it has approved the procurement of a 1,500 bed facility at Waikeria Prison that will be designed, built, financed and maintained under a Public Private Partnership (PPP).

This will be the third PPP contract in place within the Department of Corrections. Similar to the Auckland Prison PPP model, the new facility at Waikeria Prison will be operated by Corrections but built and maintained by a PPP. The PPP contractor will provide facilities and services to an expected standard over the life of the contract. This will encourage respondents to consider facility maintenance and asset management implications during the design of the facility. 

In early January Corrections will release the Expression of Interest to the market. A Request for Proposal will be released to shortlisted respondents in April, and the Department expects to have identified its preferred bidder in late 2017. A contract will be signed with the successful PPP contractor in the first half of 2018 and construction will commence shortly afterwards. The new facility is expected to be complete in late 2021. 

Running in parallel with the procurement process is the planning approval process. Corrections is seeking the necessary approvals under the Resource Management Act and is currently engaging with the local community prior to formally lodging its application with Council next year.

Corrections Minister Judith Collins said:

“Last month I advised that the Government had approved plans to increase prison capacity on existing prison sites.  At that time approval in principal was given to a new facility at Waikeria Prison. I am pleased to advise that the Government has now approved the detailed business case for the new facility.”