A new indoor sports centre at Saxton Field will be put through its paces for the first time next month, prior to it being completed.
The Pakistan cricket team will be the first professional sports team to use the $600,000 multisport training facility when they play a New Zealand selection side in a three-day match at Saxton Oval, starting on November 11.
The building structure with a 46 by 14-metre footprint was completed, the astroturf has been laid and the cricket nets would be installed this week.
The project, which was initially expected to be completed in July, was delayed when changes had to be made to the design to include space for the Nelson Smallbore Rifle Association. The association’s former clubrooms in Paru Paru Rd were demolished by the Nelson City Council in January as part of the Rutherford Park redevelopment.
The centre will host the Black Caps and Bangladesh for two oneday internationals at Saxton Oval on December 29 and 31.
(The Nelson Mail, Wednesday, October 26th, 2016)
When Clayton Munting first saw the house at 403 Wakefield Quay, he knew it would be the perfect place for his young family to call home.
Munting purchased the property where Captain Arthur Wakefield first set up camp on the shores of the Nelson harbour for $1.435 million at auction on Saturday.
The two-storey, four bedroom house is situated on a 3349 square metre section and has a rateable value of $1,060,000.
Bayleys agent Bruce Farquhar said the auction drew a good crowd with five bidders, all of whom were locals.
Munting grew up in Nelson and now divides his time between here and Auckland where he works as a property valuer. He initially planned to knock the existing house down and build something more modern but had decided to renovate the existing home and live in it for a year or two before making that decision.
When Captain Arthur Wakefield, who was recruited by his brother Edward Gibbon Wakefield to join the New Zealand Company, arrived from England in 1841, he landed at the foot of the Wakefield Quay property and set up camp, before building a house on the hill. The original house burnt down at the start of last century and the existing house was built between 1912 and 1920.
(The Nelson Mail, Wednesday, October 26th, 2016)
Locals forced out of housing market
Golden Bay residents are getting locked out of the housing and rental market as outsiders snap up homes in the popular holiday destination.
Ray White Golden Bay owner Billy Kerrisk said of the 50 properties she had sold this year, only three were to Golden Bay clients.
Most of the sales were of holiday homes with the majority of buyers from Nelson, followed by Christchurch and Wellington. Fewer than 20 sales were to clients who moved into the homes they bought.
Kerrisk said the absentee owners were renting their houses out short term-term or not at all.
The property market frenzy meant Kerrisk was getting at least four phone calls a day from buyers outside Golden Bay relaying to her their ‘‘wish-list’’.
While house listings had dropped, demand had surged causing prices to soar well above outdated rateable values.
A recent QV report shows median house prices in the Tasman District rose to $475,427 in September, which is 11.4 per cent higher than the same time last year.
Bachcare founder Leslie Preston said the company was experiencing unprecedented growth in Golden Bay.
The company manages 50 properties in the area. The majority of clients were holidayhome owners looking to derive income when not using the property for personal use, she said. In comparison, neighbouring Nelson city offered a more year-round appeal so the holiday-home rental market was more consistent.
‘‘I’m seeing people from outside are investing and buying houses for their own personal use, and then they aren’t renting them out.’’
First National company partner Sharon McConnan said she had also seen a rise in outsiders buying in the area. Some clients hoped to escape the city; some were investors; and some were Christchurch refugees finally getting their insurance payouts.
But people often forgot that Golden Bay had always been a holiday town, McConnan said.
(The Nelson Mail, Thursday, October 27th, 2016)
Grand plans to redevelop Nelson’s Haven Precinct could be thwarted by the huge costs required to bring heritage buildings up to standard, a public meeting has heard.
Nelson City Council is in the early stages of investigating and providing concept plans for the Haven Precinct development, which covers a section from the former Reliance Engineering building to the Boathouse on Rocks Rd. As part of this process, a public discussion was held last night to hear and share ideas on the potential development with about twenty residents joining council staff and external consultants at the Trafalgar Park pavilion.
Those involved with planning hoped to strike a balance between creating a sustainable solution and something that best reflected community and economic values for the area.
However, questions were raised as to whether there would be more value retaining or removing of the area’s heritage buildings.
The council has paid almost $4m in the past few years for the Anchor Shipping, former Reliance and Four Seasons buildings to develop the city to sea link.
Property developer Roger Gibbons said the cost in bringing heritage buildings up to earthquake standard was a significant hurdle to present and future building owners.
He said the foundations of the council-owned old power station, which formed part of the precinct, were rusting away. Gibbons said he had received estimates that it would cost $7-10 million to strengthen the building.
‘‘Who in their right mind is going to go in there and refurbish it?’’
He said managing these heritage buildings was the biggest impediment to the plan.
‘‘The anchor building is a nice building but it’s going to cost a fortune to strengthen.’’
NCC manager of capital projects Shane Davies said the council would need to go through a large resource consent process should it want to demolish or modify the buildings.
However, he said that as a unitary authority any consent would be processed by an external source, which would incur significant costs.
Draft concept plans are expected to be provided next month.
(The Nelson Mail, Friday, October 28th, 2016)
Only two of the 18 Special Housing Areas for Nelson have resource consent one month after the Nelson City Council deadline.
Despite being slower than expected, a consultant says work is progressing faster than it would under normal circumstances.
Property owner Jose Cano has plans to develop a five-storey apartment complex on Haven Rd called Barcelona Lofts.
He said progress was tracking ‘‘slowly’’ for Barcelona Lofts and he had therefore turned his focus to the restoration of an historic seafarers chapel at the site.
Once complete the church will house a cafe or a small restaurant.
Cano said he and landowners KKB Investments were waiting for resource consent after gaining approval for a SHA last month.
He said approval from Nelson City Council (NCC) for the apartment would take time.
Final design concepts for Barcelona Lofts would not be released to the public before they were approved by the council.
The original concept designs put to the council board in June showed a ground floor carpark area that supported three floors of apartments and a loft.
Consultancy Landmark Lile was handling Barcelona Lofts, along with Bett Carpark, Bishopdale Pottery, Paru Paru Rd, Farleigh St and Wakefield Quay SHAs.
Landmark Lile resource management consultant Mark Lile said further information had been requested on most of the SHA developments it was handling but the process was faster than it would be without the Government legislation.
An artist’s impression for the Wakefield Quay SHA shows a three-storey townhouse-style apartment complex with seasidefacing balconies and secured parking.
Arthouse Architects designs for Bishopdale Pottery on Vista Drive, above Waimea Rd depicts a modern-style housing development with individual plots.
Bett Carpark and Nelson Tasman Housing Trust’s Orchard St developments have had resource consents approved for its designs.
Bill Lynch of Berica Properties said the lifestyle blocks proposed for the Tahuna Housing Development SHA he was associated with had been put on hold. He said they had not made progress on designs for the block that covers 58-60 Tahunanui Drive.
Eighteen SHAs have been approved for Nelson so far.
(The Nelson Mail, Saturday, October 29th, 2016)
Irrigators on the Waimea Plains are being asked to confirm if they intend to affiliate to the proposed Lee Valley dam.
However, their answers won’t be binding.
The question on affiliation intention is included in application packs for the replacement of expiring water permits that Tasman District Council is sending to the holders of about 269 consents over the next couple of weeks.
TDC environment and planning manager Dennis Bush-King said about 165 of the consent renewals had been sent out so far in addition to about 40 permit holders who had already been through the process. The fee of $900 per application was a deposit ‘‘so charges could be more or less’’, Bush-King said.
Water permits for taking and using groundwater or surface water from multiple zones on the Waimea Plains are due to expire on May 31, 2017. TDC must receive a completed renewal application at least three months before the permits expire, meaning a deadline of February 28.
The question regarding the Lee Valley project asks applicants to confirm if is their ‘‘intention to affiliate’’ their replacement water permits to the dam.
Bush-King confirmed answer would not be binding.
The actual decisions on consent renewals would not be made until later next year ‘‘so there is still time for people to make a decision to affiliate or not’’.
While a decision was awaited on whether the proposed dam would be built, TDC would complete a ‘‘bona fide’’ review of water use for each applicant and provide that information to the permit holder.
Completing the seven-page water permit renewal application requires irrigators to have some key information such as their soil and crop types along with the maximum area irrigated under the expiring consent in any one week in the 10 years before April 27, 2013. Applicants also need to indicate if they seek root stock survival water.
(The Nelson Mail, Saturday, October 29th, 2016)
”Quality is not an act,
it is a habit.”
Aristotle