Fundraising and consent hold up distillery project

The start date of one of Gore’s million-dollar projects has been slightly delayed, writes Georgina Oldfield.

Work on Gore’s whiskey distillery and museum upgrade is set to begin in autumn after a slight delay.

The redevelopment of the Hokonui Moonshine Museum, new distillery and expanded Visitors Centre was expected to start immediately after $729,000 was given by the Provincial Growth Fund in April last year, but was slightly delayed because the Museum Charitable Trust was unable to meet the equivalent funding before the grant money could be released.

Gore District Arts and Heritage curator Jim Geddes said: ‘‘We knew we had to have a very persuasive proposal . . . and because the [Maruawai Project] is administered by [Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment] it was quite a strict criteria with a whole lot of benchmarks.’’

Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones announced in Gore in April funding of $1.6 million for the project, which was a combined grant for stage one and stage two of the project.

Community Trust South also donated $250,000 to stage one of the project, which was expected to be completed later this year.

Geddes said fire safety and gaining resource consent had also been an issue because the distillery was in a public area.

The PGF had released its first grant this month, which meant all tender and building consent documentation could be completed, Geddes said.

The total cost for the project is $1.9 million.

Planning had been under way for more than a year, he said.

Although work had been delayed, pre-fabrication of art displays and fit-out had been possible off-site.

Geddes was excited to offer visitors a more interactive experience with the expansion of the museum.

People liked that one-on-one experience and to be able to understand a place’s history, he said.

‘‘The better these stories are told the longer people will stick around.’’

A redeveloped museum and new distillery would also help to make it a more visitor friendly experience, Geddes said.

KAVINDA HERATH/ STUFF Gore District Arts and Heritage curator Jim Geddes says work on the new Hokonui Moonshine Museum, distillery and visitor centre (below) will start in autumn.