Developer ready to meet public for new township

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By Julia Wade

Mangawhai’s anticipated new town centre is still right on track and developers once again are ready to connect and converse with the community.

Chair of developing company Viranda, Andrew Guest, says he can now confirm that as of March 29, title for the 128 hectare Molesworth Drive property has been settled, marking a significant milestone and catalyst for a public meeting to be held on April 27 at Mangawhai’s The Club.

“All of the titles are now exclusively in our name ready for the development… the land is now all owned by Mangawhai Central Ltd,” Guest says. “This is always a milestone in any development because it reflects the tipping point of a deal proceeding or not proceeding, of crossing the Rubicon so to speak and demonstrating with significant funding the commitment that I expressed last June.”

Guest says he had hoped the settlement was going to happen earlier in September or November last year with a public meeting being held by the end of 2017, however the process was delayed due to more analysis required around technical issues. 

“We have made great progress in terms of how we approach some of the more technical issues… like water, flood levels during storm surge and freak weather events and the effect on an estuary boundary,” he says. “On a project of this magnitude, adjacent to water, with the estuary, bridge, traffic and 20 other things, a three month delay is actually no delay at all. Although I understand it can seem a long time when you are not dealing with things on a day-to-day basis, so I am not surprised that there has been minor comment expressing mild wonder as to whether settlement would actually take place… but at no stage have we not been fully committed.”

Over the last nine months, the pace of work has continued without any decelerating and the management team are delighted to be able to embark on the next stage of consultation, technical completion and design modelling.   

“This is a big comprehensive plan which must serve Mangawhai magnificently well beyond the end of the century and there is no room for cutting corners or haste,” he says. “As I said last June, and I will repeat in April, in all of our considerations, without a significant consensus of community support, development would not proceed in that form, the collective voice of the community will be paramount.”

 Viranda would like to invite the community to a public meeting on Friday April 27, 5.30pm at The Club. All are welcome.