Rabobank, the New Zealand Institute of Skills and Technology, and the Criminal Cases Review Commission have all arrived or are on their way to Hamilton – and more major entities can be expected, writes Stuff's Mike Mather.

But while Hamilton and the wider Waikato are increasingly attractive as a place to be headquartered, there are some challenges in making the city attractive to firms and Government organisations elsewhere.

David Hallett, a co-founder and director of Hamilton software firm Company-X said the recent additions showed Hamilton was “coming of age”.

“We now have a population size here that provides the facilities and infrastructure that bigger organisations want.”

“My advice is not to sell Hamilton as such, try and sell the entire Waikato.

“There are so many things that make us attractive now. It’s about the lifestyle. There’s walks and mountain-biking and the beaches out at Raglan. There’s the Waitomo Caves and Hobbiton ... a lot that we can show our clients when we do have clients here.”

There were some detractions: “Hamilton as a city name might be past its due date ... there is a real cow town perception of Hamilton that really is out of date.”

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