The city of choice: Christchurch City Mayor Phil Mauger

A privilege of being Mayor is the opportunity to attend openings and announcements, and there are three I wanted to highlight here.

Earlier this month, I had the privilege of speaking at the announcement of a $250 million expansion of the Christchurch Engine Centre.

This will be a terrific boost for our city’s economy, creating 200 new jobs. The Engine Centre supports innovation and export revenue across the city and underpins the thriving aerospace ecosystem here, so I really welcome this announcement.

Secondly, the recent unveiling of New Zealand’s first purpose-built Youth Hub. This project has been led by Dame Sue Bagshaw and aims to provide everything our young people need to improve and maintain their mental health.

Over the past few years, Christchurch youngsters have faced some big challenges. The Youth Hub will be a one-stop-shop offering safe spaces and accessible facilities and will really benefit our young people and our city. Finally, on 10 December I’ll be attending a one year to go event for the Special Olympics National Summer Games 2025. It’s been 20 years since we last hosted this in Ōtautahi Christchurch and we’ve gone through significant changes over that time.

With our new infrastructure, world-class facilities and a thriving central city, we have created a welcoming and vibrant place to visit. As a city we are ready to host and want to showcase our new facilities to the rest of New Zealand and the world. It’s fantastic to see these things happening in our city, driving economic growth and making us the city of choice.