Seven months after the old building was demolished, the Kaiteriteri Store is open again and preparing for the summer rush.
The store’s opening on Monday was marked with a blessing from local iwi, but its build has been marked by controversy over its impact on the beach’s aesthetics and amenity.
Kaiteriteri Recreation Reserve Board project manager Martin Rodd said the new store was was sited on Kaiteriteri Sandy Bay Rd after proposals to relocate the store proved contentious.
Plans to build a second storey of motel units were not publicly notified, and proposals to narrow the main road outside the shop, introduce floating water taxi jetties and remove about 15 campsites were opposed by campers and concession booth holders concerned by overcrowding.
The store’s reopening, one week behind schedule, heralds the partial realisation of a $5 million redevelopment of Kaiteriteri to better market the area as a year-round tourist destination.
The new 372 square metre shop is a modern update of its predecessor with an icecream bar, outdoor courtyard and televisions displaying store prices.
(The Nelson Mail, Wednesday, 9 December, 2015)
The $3.1 million upgraded state-of-the-art wastewater treatment plant for Takaka was officially opened on Tuesday.
It provides a sealed inlet area to prevent odour, a new screening system, ‘‘baffles’’ and aeration to extend the treatment time, a floating wetland and eight new soakage basins. Project engineer Jeannie Homesley said ‘‘baffles’’ worked like dividers and forced the water to take the longest path through the pond, providing a longer treatment time.
Students from Golden Bay High School designed the natural screening and planted all the trees and shrubs at the entrance to the plant.
(The Nelson Mail, Thursday, 10 December, 2015)
Plans for a new shopping precinct in Nelson are still under way despite delays resulting in a store closure and three redundancies.
Commercial broker Geoff Faulkner said the complex in Annesbrook, called Nelson Junction, is required to be fully tenanted before construction can commence on the development on State Highway 6 in Annesbrook.
While all spaces have not yet been filled Faulkner said there were ‘‘really good numbers of people under negotiation’’.
Hunter Furniture in Nelson city were one of the retailers expecting to move into the new development after signing a Memorandum of Terms in 2014.
Hunter Retail managing director Matt Roberts said he expected to move into Nelson Junction in October 2015. The existing store on Achilles Ave had posed a number of problems including flooding issues which had left the store with thousands of dollars of damage to stock.
But the central-city store will close on December 20 as a result of the complex’s extended completion date. The store had operated in Nelson for 15 years.
Roberts said it was the intention of Hunter Furniture to re-open a Nelson branch in the future when they found a suitable premises.
Faulkner said the target date for opening the precinct was now 2017. Once tenanted the total complex would cover an excess of 25,000 square metres.
(The Nelson Mail, Friday, 11 December, 2015)
Today Stevie-Lee Taylor and her family will move into their brand new three-bedroom rental home on Nelson’s St Lawrence Street.
The insulated, solar-powered house is one of four new homes built with funding from the Nelson Tasman Housing Trust (NTHT), which works with social agencies to provide affordable housing to low-income tenants. The $1.2 million St Lawrence St build – funded by a $550,000 grant from the government’s Social Housing Fund and an ASB mortgage – brings the trust’s portfolio to 39 houses.
Developing the 4000 metre section was a challenging three-year long project that required contractors to level the land before building, NTHT director Keith Preston said.
The homes are rent-controlled. Tenants pay 25 per cent of their income at most – $360 a week for a four-bedroom house or $305 for three bedrooms – with a government housing subsidy paying the balance of their rents to the trust, which acts as landlord.
Nelson MP Nick Smith said the subsidy helped many local families who were ‘‘doing it tough’’ with housing that compromised their health and well-being. ‘‘The only way we’re going to address the issue is house by house, family by family.’’
(The Nelson Mail, Saturday, 12 December, 2015)
Nelson homes are in short-supply but demand is expected to increase with an influx of visitors over summer, says Real Estate Institute of New Zealand spokesperson Darryl Marshall.
The institute’s November figures showed a ‘‘very positive and active market’’, Marshall said, particularly in Richmond which had a median of $526,000 – well above the national average of $459,500.
Marshall said the high median was due to more homes in the upper-end of the market being sold. The increase was 9.4 per cent higher than Richmond’s October median and 11.9 per cent higher than November 2014.
Richmond’s volume of homes sold also rose 47.8 per cent in November compared with the same month last year – 34 were sold overall.
Marshall said demand was continuing to out-strip supply, resulting in the increases.
(The Nelson Mail, Saturday, 12 December, 2015)
