Cosy Corner Holiday Park owner Ted Davidson, pictured with wife Mavis, says his property is "the best spot in the best town in the best country in the world". Photo/John Borren
Nearly 50 years ago, Ted Davidson bought the Cosy Corner Holiday Park at Mt Maunganui.
Now it is the last privately owned campground at the Mount, occupying a prime 0.8ha site tucked behind houses on Oceanbeach Rd and McDowell St.
When Ted bought the Cosy Corner in 1967, it was the sixth campground on the coast between McDowell and Mauao, and there were a total of 14 campgrounds in the wider area.
He is coy about the purchase price but his son Greg, who has managed the Cosy Corner almost two decades, reveals his dad paid $22,000 for the 0.8ha property.
Latest Tauranga City Council valuations put its worth at almost $3 million.
Last year, the nearby Golden Grove Holiday Park on Girven Rd sold for $3.65m.
Also family-owned, it was bought by developers, who are now building 69 apartments and townhouses on the 9500sq m property.
The only other remaining campground at the Mount is the council-owned Mount Maunganui Beachside Holiday Park at the base of Mauao.
Its capital value is $13.2m.
The seaside campground's land value alone jumped more than 45 per cent from nearly $7.8m in 2012 to $11.3m last year, according to the council's rating information database.
In the face of the nationwide property boom, the value of Tauranga's campgrounds has rocketed, thanks in part to the fact most occupy large coastal sites.
Ted Davidson says he and wife Mavis get approaches from developers keen to buy the Cosy Corner but he is not interested.
"To me, we're in the best spot in the best town in the best country in the world. What the hell would I move for?"
Greg Davidson, who is Ted and Mavis' only child and a father of three, says he is under no illusion about what would happen if the campground was sold.
"It'll just be flattened. They'll put a bulldozer through it."
Like other campground owners, the Davidsons have watched the worth of their asset rise exponentially, the Cosy Corner's two lots now having a combined capital value of $2.955m.
The land value of the larger 0.7 ha lot jumped by almost a third from $1.39m in 2012 to $1.83m last year, according to the council database.
Ted and Mavis live in one house at the Cosy Corner and Greg and his partner of 20 years Vicki Pike in another.
Ted says if he was to sell, he would want the buyer to top what they have now, starting with two replacement homes on Oceanbeach Rd.
"And then, the balance in the bank, the interest on it, would have to give me the same income I'm getting now."
Greg, 54, says the recent sales of campgrounds are a pity but his 85-year-old father is more philosophical.
"You can't do anything about that," says Ted. "If I had've wanted to stop them being sold, I would've had to have bought them, wouldn't I?"
Quotable Valuable national spokeswoman Andrea Rush says as well as having large land areas, campgrounds often come with sea views or easy access to water.
"If there is high demand for residential housing in areas where campgrounds are located then developers will be interested in that land to build more houses and dwellings on if bare land is in short supply."
At the same time, she says developers may treat some coastal sites with caution.
"Depending on if the land is absolute waterfront and low lying, and thus at greater risk of sea-level rise or coastal erosion, this could impact on its value long term."
Ted Davidson says one of the great strengths of the Cosy Corner property is the fact that it is not right on the beach.
"We go to the beach and it doesn't come to us," he says, adding that he knows what he will do in a tsunami.
'I'll sit in my chair here and when I see the waves coming through between Greg's place and mine, I'll go and sit at the top of my stairs and hang on."
Ted is a joiner by trade and operated out of the first commercial building at the Mount, located on Marsh St.
He also owned one of the first commercial surfboard manufacturing companies in the country before he bought the Cosy Corner.
His family has a long history at the Mount, his parents and grandparents buying the first sections on Valley Rd when it was subdivided off a farm.
Ted says his grandfather (who like him and his father was also called Ted, short for Edwin) paid £45 for his section at number 13 in 1940.
"When I was a kid here, my Grandad said to me, 'Look son, in your lifetime put every cent you can put your hands on property at Mt Maunganui and you will never go wrong'," Ted recounts.
While running his joinery and surfboard manufacturing businesses, Ted also had a surfboard hire stand on the Mount's Main Beach.
He says he realised the value of a hire business over retail and manufacturing operations, which needed stock replenished.
He says kids who bought surfboards off him always paid their hire-purchase bills, but "respectable" businessmen who commissioned joinery projects often owed him thousands.
"I realised that you needed to have something where you got cash at the gate."
He began searching for the right business, hearing the Cosy Corner was for sale while helping to build the amenities block at the Golden Grove Holiday Park.
The Golden Grove's owner was a family friend and when Ted mentioned he wouldn't mind something similar, the owner told him the Cosy Corner was on the market.
The campground had been established 10 years earlier and changed hands once before, and Ted's decision to buy it was made quickly.
Says his son Greg: "He zapped down the road at lunchtime and bought it on the spot."
Ted recalls ringing Mavis and asking her, 'How'd you like to own a motor camp?"
When he got home that night and told her he had bought it, she replied, "My God, I thought you were only joking."
Ted sold both his other businesses and his young family's house in Otumoetai to buy the campground, saying he made the right decision.
"It's a great industry to be involved in," he says. "We get some lovely people and to me, the Mount has always been home."
Ted and Mavis kept the campground's name as Cosy Corner - "we never changed it, we found it was so well known throughout New Zealand" - and he says they also kept true to the camp's roots.
Cosy Corner caters exclusively to holiday makers, not accepting permanent residents, and Ted says guests include families who have been visiting since the early 70s.
"We're totally a holiday park that makes holidays for New Zealand families."
The campground had the first swimming pool at the Mount and Greg Davidson says most people of his generation who grew up in the area learned to swim at the Cosy Corner.
When he put an old picture of the pool on Facebook recently, several people commented and said they recognised themselves or others.
Sadly, says Greg, spiralling operating costs are causing changes in the camp, and this year, for the first time, Cosy Corner is opening just for summer,
The camp has 65 camp sites, 35 of which are occupied by annual visitors, but Greg says it has become uneconomical to stay open in winter, except for large group bookings and major events such as the Aims Games.
Greg admits the long-term future of the camp is uncertain but says for now "the campers are paying for us to live on Oceanbeach Rd".
He says it is unlikely any of his three adult children will take over the Cosy Corner's management, each forging their own careers.
Ted Davidson, meanwhile, says he and Mavis have travelled plenty since Greg took over the running of the camp in 1988.
"There's nothing in the world that will touch what we've got right here," Ted says.
"The family would be silly to sell it because you'll never get this spot again."
TO CASH UP OR TO STAY PUT?
Six years ago, there were 12 campgrounds in Tauranga.
Now, there are nine.
Three are on council-owned land and listed as reserves, while six are privately owned.
Of those in private hands, four are zoned suburban residential and one commercial business. The other is rural.
While Ted Davidson remains determined to stay put at the Cosy Corner, several Bay families who own campgrounds have cashed up their assets in recent years.
The three camps sold since 2010 were all privately owned, two of the sales in the past two years.
The Golden Grove on Girven Rd was owned by Max and Deborah Sullivan for 21 years before they sold it to two Mount developers in October last year.
It fetched $3.65m and is now being developed as Salt, a complex of 69 apartments and townhouses.
Two-bedroom townhouses start at $625,000, according to marketing materials.
In December 2014, Palms Motor Camp on Waihi Rd was sold for $1.6m, Quotable Value saying the 7724sq m property has since been subdivided into sections.
Meanwhile, the Mount Maunganui Beachside Holiday Park, which is owned by Tauranga City Council, has the highest value of any campground in the city.
Its capital value is now $13.2m, up 43 per cent from $9.25m in 2012, according to the council.
Asked if there are plans to redevelop the park in future, Dean Williams, manager of city development, says the council is constantly monitoring its assets and attractions with a view to ongoing maintenance and improvement.
"The holiday park is no different and, as one of the premier campsites in New Zealand, we will continue to look at opportunities to increase accommodation space which respects the special setting of the facility and which is within the relevant regulations."
He says the council is looking at increasing accommodation space with an additional six caravans and three new cabins.
Figures provided to Bay of Plenty Times Weekend show net income from the park rose from about $1.1m in 2011 to almost $1.6m in this year to date.
Other coastal campgrounds have also had increases in value in recent years.
Papamoa Beach Holiday Resort operates on land leased from the council which has a capital value of $8.17m, making it the second most valuable campground in the city.
The park is on Papamoa Beach Rd and its land value soared 44 per cent between 2012 and 2015, according to the council's rating information database.
Mr Williams said the lease was currently being renegotiated and further information could not be provided as it may prejudice the negotiations.
The same applied to Tauranga Tourist Park, which is also on council land with the lease up for renewal.
Privately owned Pacific Park Christian Holiday Camp, further along Papamoa Beach Rd is valued at $5.46m, making it the city's third most valuable campground.
Among remaining privately owned parks, Papamoa Village Park on Parton Rd saw its land value increase 63 per cent from $515,000 in 2012 to $840,000 last year.
The capital value rose from $1.275m to $1.5m in the period.
The 1.1695ha site is zoned commercial business.
The manager was unable to comment on the camp's future, but said it offered a mix of permanent and holiday sites and was booked out over the summer.
"There's not many places at the Mount now," she said.
Two other camp owners declined to comment on the future of their properties.
The capital value of Silver Birch Holiday Park on Turret Rd increased about 10 per cent from $1.38m in 2012 to $1.516m last year.
The owner is Heatherlea Resthome Ltd and a company representative said no offers that she was aware of had been received for the 0.69ha site, which is zoned suburban residential.
She declined to comment further other than to say the property would continue to be run as a campground for the foreseeable future.
There are about 60 camp sites and 21 cabins at Silver Birch, most of which are occupied by semi-permanent residents.
A staff member at the camp said they were asked to vacate during the busy summer period, when the camp was filled by holiday makers.
The owner of the Welcome Bay Hot Pools and Tourist Park also declined to comment on the future of his camp.
The park's website shows it has 24 powered sites, and cabins that can sleep 2 to 6 people.
Its land value rose almost 15 per cent between 2012 and 2015, the 1.631ha rural site boasting a capital value of $810,000.
- Additional reporting Carmen Hall
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