A large Tauranga kiwifruit orchard is being converted into a retirement village.
Building is planned to start this month on Althorp Village, a 266-unit 10ha retirement development.
The $65 million development will add a village to the 60-bed Althorp Private Hospital opened in December.
The rural site is about 7km south of Taurangacity centre and is being developed by David and Jane Church and Talbot and Joanne Munro, who owned the land when it was a kiwifruit farm.
The development is expected to take six years and will be the largest retirement village in the Bay of Plenty, says Althorp Village sales manager Tony Prowse.
"The land owners chopped down about a quarter of the kiwifruit vines for the hospital site and the early stages of this village," Mr Prowse said.
"They are getting out of the kiwifruit farming industry."
