Work to start on $12m clubrooms
‘‘This is about investing in to an area where kids need a helping hand.’’
It has taken eight years and much debate but work is finally about to start on stage two of Fraser Park Sportsville.
Construction of the $12 million clubrooms will begin within the next six weeks, with a completion date of spring 2018.
The 100-metre-long and 30-metre-wide building will serve a range of clubs and codes, including rugby, softball, hockey and squash.
Stage one, costing $3 million, was completed in 2015, featuring three new softball diamonds, an artificial football turf, lighting and landscaping.
The Avalon Rugby Club shares the turf with Lower Hutt City Football Club, which relocated from Moera.
Although the tender to begin construction has been signed, the council needs to raise a further $2 million.
City council general manager Matt Reid said the clubs had all been asked to contribute $100,000 and the council’s Community Facilities Trust would raise the rest.
In backing the project, Reid said the council had a number of aims.
As well as boosting participation numbers, it is part of a wider project to support the lower socio-economic suburbs of Taita and Pomare.
The council spent $12 million upgrading the Walter Nash Centre in Taita to create a community hub.
The centre, which combines sporting and community facilities, had proved hugely successful and Reid was confident the sporting hub would have a similar impact.
‘‘This is about investing into an area where kids need a helping hand.’’
Originally it was planned to demolish the grandstand, rugby clubrooms and some of the other buildings on the ground.
That is dependent on funding, and Reid said other uses for the buildings were also being explored.
As well as six squash courts, the clubrooms include indoor training facilities, a cafe and ten changing rooms on the ground floor. From the top floor members will be able to watch football on the artificial turf.
It will be administered by an umbrella organisation, Fraser Park Sportsville, representing all the clubs. When finished, it will be the biggest and most expensive sporting project the council has built.
Planned hubs in Wainuiomata and Petone are still in the planning stage. Reid said both were more about getting clubs working together, than building large facilities.
‘‘There will only be one Fraser Park Sportsville. If they [Wainuiomata and Petone] think they are going to get something like this, they are kidding themselves.’’
CFT chairperson Alister Skene paid tribute to the clubs involved and said Sportsville chair Mark Heissenbuttel had done a top job getting the clubs to work together.
Fraser Park Sportsville members: Avalon Rugby Club, Hutt Valley Dodgers Softball Club, Hutt City Squash (merger of Fraser Park and Mitchell Park squash clubs), Hutt Valley Softball Association, Lower Hutt City AFC, Naenae Hockey Club, Wellington Regional Hockey Stadium Trust, and Taita District Cricket Club.