$1.5B in planned projects for Tauranga CBD

Big changes are planned for Tauranga's CBD. File photo/SunLive.

Showcasing the major growth in development that's expected to take place in Tauranga's CBD within the next eight years, the city's new CBD Blueprint represents a pivotal turning point for New Zealand's fastest growing city.

Launched today by Priority One, the Western Bay of Plenty region's economic development agency, the Blueprint highlights the 20 catalyst developments that are committed for the city before 2030, underpinning $1.5B in confirmed investment and laying the foundation for further opportunities.

'This Blueprint is the first of its kind for Tauranga - never before have we been able to bring together this level of certainty for the community,” says Priority One CEO, Nigel Tutt.

The Blueprint has been developed in partnership with developers, investors, central government and Tauranga City Council.

'The Blueprint showcases the depth of investment from these groups of people, who are collectively investing billions of dollars into our local economy, building a thriving city that meets the needs of our people today, and tomorrow,” says Tutt.

Priority One CEO, Nigel Tutt.

Bayleys Head of Insights, Data and Consulting, Chris Farhi, says the developments shown in the Blueprint demonstrate that Tauranga CBD will be amongst the most transformed city centres in New Zealand over the coming decade.

'The existing low-rise development across most of Tauranga CBD creates a widespread canvas that is not available in places like Auckland CBD or Wellington CBD,” he says.

Tutt says it's expected more developments will be added to the Blueprint in time as demand from investors and developers wanting to be part of the reinvigoration of the CBD heats up.

'Purposefully, we've only included developments that have high levels of certainty to give credibility to the plan, however, as interest and excitement builds, we expect we'll see more,” says Tutt.

Key developments in the Blueprint include a range of residential and commercial buildings, the new Tauranga District Court and the proposed projects included in the refreshed masterplan for the civic precinct – Te Manawataki o Te Papa.

Director of Classic Group, Peter Cooney says the launch of the CBD Blueprint has been a long time coming and he's thrilled with the collaborative and coordinated approach.

'The increased opportunity for development in Tauranga over the next eight years and the scale of private and council led development makes for a very exciting time in Tauranga,” he says.

In the future, Tauranga's CBD will be uniquely shaped by eight precincts to help support the growth and investment required to make Tauranga's CBD a thriving civic, commercial, and cultural hub.

Tutt says ultimately, as a result of the significant work taking place, many more people will be choosing to live, study, work and play in the CBD over the next decade, creating a more vibrant and exciting city to enjoy.

Priority One will be hosting CBD Blueprint Walking Tours to showcase the developments outlined in the CBD Blueprint.

To register to attend a walking tour, and for additional information around the Tauranga CBD Blueprint, visit: www.priorityone.co.nz/cbd-blueprint

Projects planned for the northern end of the CBD.

Planned prjects for the central CBD.

Projects for the southern CBD.

10 comments

BS

Posted on 13-05-2022 07:51 | By Slim Shady

I love the PR spin. They chuck in the buzzwords like 'blueprint', 'masterplan' and 'catalyst' but the building they mention is the District Court. That tells you everything you need to know. We are building a city around a District Court. The apartments will be bought by investors and rented out with diminishing returns. Decent tenants at first but in 5 years it will be cheap rent and a slum. But al least the occupants won't have far to go to collect their Gold Leaf Wet Bus Ticket. To be avoided like it is now.


Dream, Dream, Dream

Posted on 13-05-2022 07:58 | By Wigan

It's all very well having these great big dreams and I guess we never move forward without them, BUT Not a word on fixing the infrastructure. The wannabe political clowns can't even get roading in & out of the city sorted so how is anyone ever going to get to the dozens of new apartments being proposed? We can't all get to work on a bike!


In the past

Posted on 13-05-2022 08:29 | By Local Too

CBD are a thing of the past. Nobody goes to them they all shop in their local areas. I can't wait to leave Tauranga as its been taken over by the nut jobs of society.


Priority One to the rescue

Posted on 13-05-2022 09:08 | By The Sage

Or so they would like us to believe. Why is it that when growth in the CBD is generally attributed to Priority One, when all they really do is pontificate about it and organise walking tours. Never have I heard so many words say so little. Of course P1 is funded by the Council so they have to justify their existence somehow. Food for thought, would the community survive without Priority One? I think if most people thought about this, the true answer would be yes.


OMG

Posted on 13-05-2022 09:53 | By RML

What for. No one goes there. And remember we are broke.........


Organised?

Posted on 13-05-2022 10:11 | By Accountable

The city businesses will not be able to survive with this amount of disruption and, as from past and present experience the inevitable road closures and most importantly the loss of easily accessable car parking. Business and in particular retail does not have the reserves and resources to continue to trade without the necessary foottraffic needed to survive let alone make some sort of sustainable profit and if proof is needed just ask any reatiler in the CBD today and the truth will be a sad story. If this news release has any sort of truth to it lets start with a rebuilding program that has some sort of coordination that guarantees a minimum amount of disruption within a time frame that the retail can sustain otherwise this rebuilding program will be a waste of time and money as the CBD will be a even bigger ghost town in futur


Wow you know how to waste money

Posted on 13-05-2022 12:33 | By katikatinudist

All new apartments, So bringing more people into the city but not fixing the roads to get them in and out of the city, Bad planning again. Fix SH2 and do the katikati bypass ASAP, also fix the road from Tauriko over the Kaimai's then Tauranga may be able to grow.


Decentralise

Posted on 13-05-2022 14:08 | By Kancho

An isthmus to cram things into with limited access or space is plain dumb. Better plan like overseas and even Manukau city is to build on outskirts of town where more space is available. Council offices etc don't need to be crowded into city centres nor any large service or employer. The gold coast is for seaside apartments, restaurants, entertainment etc not municipal hidings . The Gold Coast put all the council, university etc inland with good bus service linkages. Take downtown back to a seaside village and build elsewhere


Overcrowded

Posted on 13-05-2022 17:22 | By HuggyBear

The inner city, in my view can't sustain the density of private housing. I would rather see a light transit system throughout Tauranga including the city. If apartments are built the quality needs to be paramount. Apartments in Liverpool street AK are cheap and built on Lease hold land. Many owners are renting them to income support for their clients. There are inherent problems associated with that which I will leave to your imagination. I would like to see the strand closed to traffic and developed with a parklike theme for the enjoyment of all. And get rid of the hotels and apartments on the strand. I see there is another office block on the roundabout being turned into apartments. The water front is unique to Tauranga. Don't spoil it with Apartments.


An unelected elite.

Posted on 14-05-2022 12:13 | By morepork

"The Blueprint has been developed in partnership with developers, investors, central government and Tauranga City Council.", but, of course, NOT the people of Tauranga. P1 is just a minion of TCC and you can bet that all of the "profitable" projects are designed to enrich the proponents. If such a list of projects is being looked at, why hasn't it been presented to the people of Tauranga to vote on and prioritize? An appointed set of Commissioners, in cahoots with some industry capitalists, will decide what is good for Tauranga? Most of us would be happy with seeing better traffic flow and some encouragement for small businesses to move back to town (like reasonable rentals, or even rentals based on turnover...) Once the fundamentals are in place, THEN look at some more ambitious projects and look at what can be financed and is affordable for the city.


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