Mount Maunganui RSA acting manager Jonathan Clarke. Photo / Kelly O’Hara
The Tauranga and Mount Maunganui RSAs are planning their futures separately after a long-discussed plan to merge the clubs fell through.
Mount Maunganui RSA club members will meet this month to consider the club’s future, including how to address issues affecting its ageing Maunganui Rd building.
Acting manager Jonathan Clarke said options on the table at the March 30 special meeting would include selling up, redeveloping the prime site or merging with another Mount club.
Tauranga RSA president Morton Anderson said discussions since 2024 about a possible merger with Mount RSA have now been discontinued.
“For now, we are concentrating on the core role of the RSA, which is supporting veterans and their families,” Anderson said.
Mount Maunganui RSA has about 4000 members and remains one of the larger RSAs in New Zealand.
According to Clarke, the Mount RSA had not recorded a profitable year for about a decade.
“If you go back 10 years, the club had well over half a million in the bank,” he said. “Fast-forward to today, they’ve got very little in the bank and $350,000 worth of loans.”
Clarke said many RSAs had closed in recent years, including in Katikati, as well as “some notable ones in Auckland and Christchurch”.
“Other ones have been forced to merge with other clubs,” Clarke said.
“Clubs that are struggling financially have had little money to put into welfare. If you go back 30 years, they had tens of thousands to put into veteran support, but with the financial situation of most clubs, it’s now a trickle.”
He said the club building, which dates back to the 1960s, also requires substantial maintenance.
“One side of the building is actually sinking, and you can feel it when you’re walking downhill through the west wing,” Clarke said.
“The roof needs hundreds of thousands spent on it to fix it. And there is a whole list of urgent maintenance ranging from electrical work to equipment upgrades.”
“Tauranga RSA came to the conclusion that sinking a large sum into the building to renovate it and supporting a loss-making business wasn’t the best use of their money,” he said.
At a recent meeting, members discussed possible options for the club’s future, with further discussions scheduled for March 30.
One possibility being explored is a potential merger with Club Mount near Blake Park.
“We’re in discussions with them at the moment,” Clarke said. “There are a number of different variations of how that could work.”
Another option could involve redeveloping the Mount RSA site with a developer, potentially building a smaller RSA facility as part of a larger development.
Clarke said the Mount RSA occupies one of the last large commercial sites in Mount Maunganui, and the land has strong development interest.
“There aren’t many large main road commercial sites left on the Mount peninsula,” he said. “It’s pretty much our place or nothing.”
Any major decision will ultimately be up to members.
“All of the options are still being worked through,” Clarke said. “They’ll be presented in full to members and then they will decide the future direction.”
Tauranga RSA, which has about 1000 members, had undergone significant changes over the years.
The organisation was originally based on Cameron Rd near Tauranga Hospital before relocating to Greerton.
The Greerton property was sold last year to Turners Property Holdings Ltd.
Tauranga RSA members voted at an extraordinary general meeting in February to cease the amalgamation process with Mount RSA and concentrate on providing welfare and support services for veterans and their families “at this point in time”.
“The Tauranga RSA will consolidate and plan, via our members, the next step forward and investigate providing a hospitality service in the future to our members,” Anderson said.
To support that plan, Tauranga RSA has bought a commercial building in Chadwick Rd. Part of the building is leased to tenants for income, while the remaining space will be used for its welfare office, meeting rooms and administration.
Despite the changes, both organisations said Anzac Day commemorations would continue as usual.
Mount Maunganui RSA will host a traditional dawn service at the Mount cenotaph followed by a gathering at the club, while Tauranga RSA will hold its dawn service at Memorial Park in partnership with Tauranga City Council.