The Rotorua Night Market.
Rotorua Lakes Council has opened the door to transferring management of the city’s night market - the latest potential shift for the long-running Thursday event.
There is no guarantee the market will remain at the traditional Tūtānekai St site, where it returned earlier this month after a short-lived and unpopular trial on the city centre fringes.
The council is seeking expressions of interest to manage the market.
Applicants may submit up to three proposals for the “exclusive management”.
This would include set-up and breakdown, health and safety, vendor selection, revenue collection, promotion, administration and growth.
The proposed contract would run for three years, with an option for another three.
The council has been looking for ways to ease the market’s $200,000 annual cost to ratepayers.
The council moved the market to Kuirau Park as a trial last October, citing traffic management and health and safety concerns.
The trial was abandoned in December after pushback from vendors and the public, and following a council vote initiated by councillor Robert Lee.
The market returned to Tūtānekai St on January 8.
Despite that return, the council has not committed to keeping the market there.
It has listed 10 potential sites, including Tūtānekai St, two locations each at Government Gardens and Kuirau Park, carparks on Haupapa St, at the Energy Events Centre and on Lake Rd near the lakefront, as well as Memorial Plaza and the Village Green.
Council community experience group manager Alex Wilson said the expressions of interest process was part of ongoing investigations into the night market’s future, as directed in the 2025/26 annual plan.
“Investigation findings will be reported to council in late February to inform elected members’ decision-making on the future of the night market,” Wilson said.
“Further steps and timelines will be dependent on the decision council makes.”
Cowboy Roast House owner Farnoud Rahimi Mansour said it was important the market became self-sustaining.
He suggested increasing the number of stalls and broadening the mix beyond food vendors as possible ways to lift revenue.
Mansour said the focus should be on maximising the potential of the current site rather than moving it.
“It’s not always about doing the easy thing to cut costs,” he said.
“We should look to make more money here.”
Mansour said the first night back on Tūtānekai St delivered his second-highest revenue in two years.
“All the stallholders seemed happy, and it was very nice to see long queues like that again.”
Reg Hennessy, owner of Hennessy’s Irish Bar on Tūtānekai St, said the place was “chocka” last Thursday, particularly with tourists.
Hennessy was among those who helped establish the night market 15 years ago.
He said it could be “a good idea” to let a “private enterprise” take over if the council could not reduce the financial burden on ratepayers.
Tūtānekai St is the “only place” suited for the market.
Other options were too open to the elements, Hennessy said, and he believed the council could “invest a lot more” into the Tūtānekai St area.
Expressions of interest can be made using the council’s e-tendering portal and close on February 5.
Mathew Nash is a Local Democracy Reporting journalist based at the Rotorua Daily Post. He has previously written for SunLive, been a regular contributor to RNZ and was a football reporter in the UK for eight years.
- LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.