Three of the people behind Hamilton’s BNZ Theatre have won three of the top honours at Property Council New Zealand’s Central Property People Awards in Hamilton tonight, with Fosters’ Leonard Gardner named the Colliers Project Leaders Supreme Excellence winner. Waikato Regional Property Trust chair Ross Hargood won the Fosters City Shaper Award, and Tompkins Wake partner Scott Ratuki, a trustee of the trust, received the Harkness Henry Judges’ Choice Award.
“The BNZ Theatre shows what a region can achieve when its people refuse to give up on a big idea. Leonard, Ross and Scott each played a different part in getting it built, and tonight we recognise the years of persistence behind it,” says Property Council chief executive Leonie Freeman.
The $80 million, 1,300-seat theatre opened in January 2026 after eight years of work. The project was paused for 18 months while the trust worked with five Māori hapū following the discovery of an urupā (burial ground), and rising steel prices alone added more than $8 million to its cost.
Mr Gardner, Fosters’ commercial development director, was one of the theatre’s earliest champions as chair of Momentum Waikato, which rallied support from government, businesses, trusts and donors. He also won the Chow:Hill Outstanding Leadership Award, recognising his role in projects including Union Square and in founding the New Zealand Construction Alliance.
“Leonard’s impact is not just measured by what he has delivered, but by the people he has inspired, the relationships he has built and the opportunities he has helped create for others,” the judging panel said.
Mr Hargood gave eight years of volunteer leadership as the trust’s first chair, at times working full-time hours on the project. He also led the trust into a 15-year operating agreement with Live Nation, which gives Waikato community groups a 40 per cent discount on venue hire.
“His ability to bring together the process, the team and the project have been instrumental in making this vision a reality,” says judge Jane Hill.
“These winners have shaped the places where people in the Waikato and Bay of Plenty live, work and gather. Their work is a reminder that property is about people and the communities they build,” says Ms Freeman.
In the Bay of Plenty, the team behind Tauranga’s new library and community hub, He Puna Manawa, won the Veros Best Team Award, days after the building opened to the public. The team delivered a first-of-its-kind civic mass timber building on time and under budget, with a 6 Green Star design rating.
“Tauranga’s new library shows civic buildings can be ambitious, low-carbon and delivered on time and on budget. That’s a model councils across the country should be looking at,” says Ms Freeman.
Waikato Regional Airport’s Robert Dol was named CKL Property Professional of the Year, and the Hamilton Airport Team won the Boffa Miskell Sustainability Champion Award for a programme that includes 15 hectares of protected habitat for the endangered long-tailed bat.
ŌRUA co-founder and managing director Renee Smith-Apanui won the Beca Women in Property Award for her work to lift Māori representation across the built environment. Fosters commercial manager Jake McDell is Young Achiever of the Year.
Brian Squair and Andrew Collins received Hawkins Long Service Awards for their contributions in the Waikato and Bay of Plenty, respectively.
ENDS
NOTES TO THE EDITOR
Winners of the 2026 Central Property People Awards
- Colliers Project Leaders Supreme Excellence Award: Leonard Gardner, Fosters
- Chow:Hill Outstanding Leadership Award: Leonard Gardner, Fosters
- Fosters City Shaper Award: Ross Hargood, Waikato Regional Property Trust
- Harkness Henry Judges’ Choice Award: Scott Ratuki, Tompkins Wake
- CKL Property Professional of the Year Award: Robert Dol, Waikato Regional Airport
- Veros Best Team Award: He Puna Manawa library and community hub team (Tauranga City Council, Willis Bond, Studio Pacific Architects, Dunning Thornton Consultants, Beca, Rider Levett Bucknall, NDY, LT McGuinness)
- Boffa Miskell Sustainability Champion Award: Hamilton Airport Team for the Titanium Park Nature-Positive Development & Biodiversity Programme
- Beca Women in Property Award: Renee Smith-Apanui, ŌRUA
- Rider Levett Bucknall Young Achiever of the Year: Jake McDell, Fosters
- Hawkins Long Service Award – Waikato: Brian Squair
- Hawkins Long Service Award – Bay of Plenty: Andrew Collins, Harrison Grierson