Café & Catering Operator for Te Manawataki o Te Papa - Library & Community Hub

Description

TCC invites Registrations of Interest from established, experienced and community focused café/catering operators to lease and operate the café within the new Te Manawataki o Te Papa – Library & Community Hub, which opens in October 2026. The café will support a steady flow of visitors, including library users, community groups, students, city workers, whānau, and the wider public. It will play an important role in creating a welcoming and vibrant atmosphere within the facility. A broader long-term café and catering model to appropriately cater for the wider precinct of Council buildings in this area is planned for when the Museum and Exhibition facilities are also open in mid-2028 with a full commercial kitchen space. Council expects to take that wider opportunity to market in mid-2027, when there is greater certainty about the scale and scope of food and beverage demand across the full precinct. For now, the Council is offering an initial commercial lease up to July 2028 for a ground-floor café with both indoor and outdoor dining areas to serve users of the new Library and Community Hub building. The space is suited to a simple cabinet-style food and beverage offer prepared off-site, with the opportunity to also provide catering for Library meeting rooms and after-hours functions.