Council buys former hospital site
The Gore District Council has bought the site of the town’s former hospital and will investigate a plan, which could cost up to $4 million, to see it developed into an indoor equestrian arena and a campervan parking area with eco-cabins.
Plans for the development were endorsed by Gore district councillors, the Southland Mayoral Forum and the Southland Territorial Advisory Group yesterday.
A business model determining who would run the site and a detailed proposal would now be developed so the council could apply for funding from the Government’s Regional Development Fund.
Yesterday, councillors met to discuss the proposal in an extraordinary meeting, which was held in committee, as the groups needed to back the plan before it could apply for the funding.
The council contribution to the project would be the site and staff time.
Council chief executive Stephen Parry said on Friday the council bought the site of the former hospital in November, 2017 for $150,000.
‘‘It had been on the market for a long time and we snaffled it up at the right price. We paid about half the GV for it.
‘‘When we bought the land late last year there was no definite plan, but a lot of work has been done since then and a project is being formulated. If it doesn’t get past go with the Regional Development Fund it won’t sail.
‘‘We’re looking at it in tandem with other commercial interests and we’re pitching it to the Provincial Growth Fund.’’
The indoor equestrian venue will complement the existing allweather outdoor arena and equestrian facilities at the Gore A&P Showgrounds, which is next door to the site. The Southern Equestrian Park Trust had been looking for a site to build an indoor arena for some time, council said.
The indoor arena proposal was in response to growth being experienced by Southland equestrian groups who have based themselves at Gore for the past six years, and to ‘‘celebrate Gore’s illustrious racing past’’.
The cabins would be off the grid, have low carbon emissions and there would be up to a dozen of them. FIT campers (free independent travellers) would be targeted for the motorhome area.
Council parks and recreation manager Ian Soper said ‘‘the local community had the right to have its hand up for funding from the Regional Growth Fund’’.
‘‘We believe it is something wonderful for our local community.’’
Last week, during a visit to Invercargill, acting Prime Minister Winston Peters said ‘‘we’re down here because we have a Provincial Growth Fund that seeks to assist in the key areas of Southland’s infrastructural development in the future based on things where the investment now will be around 20, 30, 40, 50 years and we are inviting the Southland interest groups and businesses and personalities to look at what is needed here that government has not been giving them’’.