Then in accordance with the huge response to submissions, the council agreed to restore the Regent to its former grandeur and modernise it technically to ensure its place as New Zealand’s leading provincial theatre with features that rival many of its counterparts in the major cities.

The Palmerston North City Council agreed to contribute $10 000 000 to the project, the New Zealand Lotteries Grants Board added another $1 000 000 and the local community undertook its biggest financial challenge ever – to raise $1,700,000 – the equivalent of more than $25 for every man, woman and child in the city. On Christmas Eve 1997 this sum was finally achieved, thus ensuring the restoration work which had already commenced in September,1996, would indeed be completed to the highest standard, providing the city with a facility not only of which it could be immensely proud and which would attract top class national and international performers and shows, but one which would also be able to cater superbly to the community’s requirements.