A  long-term lease of Wānaka’s former Mitre 10 building in Anderson Heights has been approved with the purpose of turning the vacant building into a youth, sports and community centre.

At a publicly excluded session after Thursday’s (April 28) council meeting, elected members agreed to lease the large building for a period of 10 years from owner Allan Dippie.

“The new facility will complement [the] Wānaka Recreation Centre and provide more capacity for sport and recreation in the district,” Queenstown Lakes District Council (QLDC) sport and recreation manager Simon Battrick said.

The building’s interior will be redesigned to create two multi-use, netball-sized courts and a separate studio that could be used for dance, yoga and fitness classes, and as a meeting space. Council staff will coordinate bookings for these available spaces.

Additionally there will be dedicated spaces for foundation tenants Kahu Youth and Aspiring Gymsports, both of which have been heavily involved in this project from the start.

In April last year councillors approved a $1.2M budget to repurpose the building and staff were working through lease negotiations which were expected to be complete by the end of 2021.

Aspiring Gymsports (AGS) founder and coach Rae Paterson said its 660 plus members and their families were excited by the prospect of council leasing the building.

Aspiring Gymsports gymnasts perform during the AGS annual display at the Wānaka Recreation Centre last November. 

“We’ve been thanking our lucky stars that it all seemed to be finally coming together, after four years of lobbying council and over 10 years of promises,” she said. 

“We are looking forward to the next step, as we inch closer to the goal of a larger venue.”

AGS has had to restrict class sizes to fit their current 200m2 leased premises. Rae said they were keen to expand into the 750m2 space promised and they had already raised $49,000 through community grants for new equipment.

“The whole Queenstown Lakes community will benefit from this move,” she said and hoped AGS, now in its 20th year of operation, would be able to relocate to the new facility within the next three months.

The “real urgency now is getting in by the end of July when our lease [on the current premises] expires with no right of renewal.” 

Kahu Youth’s lead youth worker Hemi Cordell said the decision “has been a long time coming”. They’ve occupied their current ‘crib’ for years and they’re “extremely pleased” they will be able to expand into new facilities.

“Moving into new premises has come at the perfect time for us,” he said.

Simon said the initial ten-year lease with additional rights to renew represented an important investment for the Upper Clutha community to help meet demand now and over the coming years.

Although council recognises this new centre as an important investment, the proposed $4.15M fit-out costs for the building will not be funded by all ratepayers. 

Instead, council plans to siphon funding from Wānaka’s Asset Sales Reserve (WASR) fund.

Council said the Wānaka Community Board agreed last month to fund $1M of fit-out costs from the WASR fund, and a future additional sum of $900k could also be tapped from the fund if “third-party” grants are not available.

PHOTOS: Wānaka App