$60m plan for huge complex at Bureta Park

Within a week of the new owner of the Bureta Park Motor Inn taking control of the business, the land owner unveiled plans to demolish it and build a $60 million housing and retail development.
Kevin Fraser, the new owner of the motor inn, only stepped through the doors on May 11 after purchasing the sinking business from the clutches of the liquidator.
Days later, Perry Property, the owner of the 3.12ha  site that also holds The Mill, publicly revealed its plans to demolish the 32-year-old motor inn.
In its place, it plans to construct 68 residential apartments and 18 townhouses.
There would also be a row of commercial stores constructed along Bureta Rd, where the Bureta Park Motor Inn could exist in the form of a wholesale-retail liquor shop.
The application for a resource consent was given to Tauranga City Council on April 29 and is open for public submissions until June 11.
A restaurant or bar with a gaming room  and nine retail stores were also part of the plans, handed out last week to neighbouring residents in Bureta.
Mr Fraser said despite his comments in earlier articles, a proposal for future development was never a secret.
Mr Fraser earlier this month told the Bay of Plenty Times he did not expect any major redevelopment of the site within five years.
Late last week, he said that remained the case.
He was on the verge of signing a five-year lease for the motor inn with Perry Property that excluded the 12-month demolition clause.
That meant he had five-plus years to run the motor inn as it stood.
He said he was well aware of the plans when he purchased the business and expected Bureta Park Motor Inn would in the future exist as a liquor shop on Bureta Rd.
''I don't think there was any sort of deception in what was happening,'' he said.
''I look forward to being here in 10 years' time and running an establishment on the corner and perhaps living in one of the houses.''
Located two kilometres from the Tauranga CBD, the site was a prime location for development, said Tony McLauchlan, general manager of Perry Property.
''It was under-utilised and pretty dated,'' he said.
The development of the plans had been six months in the pipeline, he said.
Perry Property was applying for a seven-year resource consent which meant it could be years before work began.
Within those seven years, development would only need  to begin, rather than finish, meaning Perry Property could honour the five-year lease with Mr Fraser.
''A project like this is very much dependent on timing and when you take something to the market,'' Mr McLauchlan said.
''It requires the market to be suitable.''
With the potential to be a staged project, it would likely take two to three years to complete, at a cost of $60 million.
The area to the east of the site, towards downtown Tauranga, which had several mature trees, was a reserve owned by Tauranga City Council and would remain the same.
Potential problems  included the increase in traffic and a need to cut down 18 protected trees.
The development also marginally exceeds the maximum permitted coverage area for the site, and it was the same site hit hard by the May 2005 floods.
An application for subdivision consent was to be made at a later stage.
The 18 townhouses would back on to existing houses on Ngatai Rd. The 68 apartments would be three-storeys high and contain a mixture of three and four bedrooms.
They would ring the outside of a semi-circle of green area, while in the basement of the apartment blocks, 148 spaces would provide parking for residents.
A further 189 carparks would be provided over the site.
In tomorrow's Bay of Plenty Times, local residents and shopkeepers give their opinion on the proposed development.