Cash from North America is coming to the rescue for the Porirua Adventure Park project, on Te Rāhui o Rangituhi/Colonial Knob, with plans to open in February 2028.
By Justin Wong of Local Democracy Reporting
Porirua city councillors are to decide behind closed doors on Thursday if they should extend an agreement to lease land to the park, with conditions the council needed to complete track upgrades, run environmental restoration and logging.
It came amid advice saying the conditions could still require substantial public resources to bring about what they called a “transformative” tourist destination. Lengthy delays have already cost the council $1 million across nine years.
Canadian tourism developer Ridge North America has agreed to inject an as-yet undisclosed amount of capital in the park and become the majority investor, subject to clearance from the Overseas Investment Office, according to public excluded papers seen by Local Democracy Reporting.
The company’s wider portfolio boasted tourist attractions in British Columbia, including a walking suspension bridge, gondola, and a rafting company, as well as hotels and housing.
The project to build the park – with attractions like a gondola, dual zipline, an indoor surf and restaurant on top of the Rangituhi/Colonial Knob – had floated around for almost a decade.
For years, its Christchurch-based developer Select Contracts struggled to secure financial backers, as interest “evaporated” during the pandemic. It didn’t make the cut for a $2.6 billion fund for “shovel-ready” projects in 2020; and the Porirua council twice refused to become an investor in the development.
Select company director Darron Charity said extending the agreement would offer security to getting overseas investment approval: “[The Overseas Investment Office] asked for that condition to be extended so they can show that the council is still committed to the transaction and that it will be executed on.”
He added Ridge had plans to expand its portfolio in New Zealand and the park would give it the first step.
The park’s latest proposal dropped earlier plans to open attractions over two phases, with a new timetable to finalise designs by October, start year-long construction in November or December, and a full opening in February 2028. It said the park would be an “anchor business” that would “drive the economic engine of tourism” to grow local hospitality and hotel accommodation industries.
That was calculated on getting overseas investment approval in September and October.
“It’s more about getting the business to open in high seasons rather than how long does it take,” Charity said. “We're not going to open up the park in the middle of winter.”
A council paper said the park’s latest proposal, armed with new investors and not having ratepayers becoming a loan guarantor, meant it was “stronger” than earlier iterations.
The developers now promised to pay off the more than $209,000 it owes for consent fees and cover the council’s “reasonable” legal bills related to completing the project.
But it warned ratepayers would be responsible for more work on the land that had “significant” costs, like fixing up an access track, running a slip assessment and removing pine trees along the gondola route, before developers could break out the shovels.
That was on top of almost $1m the council already spent over the last nine years on legal reviews, assessments and consenting. The construction timeline was also “ambitious”.
Updated analysis by advisory firm MartinJenkins commissioned by the council, based on the park’s latest proposal, said the park would have attractions appealing to both domestic and international visitors and it was “reasonable” for councillors to extend the land lease.
Economically, MartinJenkins estimated during construction, the park could create 43 full-time jobs and pump $12m to the local economy; and once it opened, the park could create 87 jobs and generate $12.8m for the local economy every year. The council’s books could also get between $500,000-$800,000 rent a year.
“While the development is not without risk, those risks are similar in nature and scale to when the council considered the original proposal,” the council paper said.
– Local Democracy Reporting is local-body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.
SHARE ME