An artist image of the proposed new hospice on the edge of Hastings. Photo / HDC
An artist image of the proposed new hospice on the edge of Hastings. Photo / HDC
A project to build a new hospice to serve Hawke’s Bay has reached a milestone, with detailed plans now lodged.
A resource consent application was submitted this week for the project on the edge of Hastings, and includes fresh artist images of what the hospice will look like if grantedconsent.
Earlier this year, following a lengthy search for a new home, Cranford Hospice Foundation entered a conditional contract to buy a 1.1-hectare property near Parkvale School.
The site, known as 238 Havelock Rd, is mostly covered in grass, with views of Te Mata Peak, and was formerly a market garden.
Construction on the site could get under way around September 2026, pending the consent process.
Artist image of the proposed new Cranford Hospice. Photo / HDC
The project is expected to cost north of $15 million, although an estimated figure has yet to be finalised.
About $14.7m has been committed and fundraised to date.
“The proposal is to construct and operate a new Cranford Hospice facility, comprising a single-storey building of [about] 2282sq m providing a 10-bed inpatient unit, associated clinical spaces, staff rooms, nursing station, communal lounge areas, kitchen and laundry spaces, storage and a large administration area with multiple offices spaces and meeting rooms and small conference facilities,” the resource consent application stated.
The site where the new hospice is proposed. Photo / Cranford Hospice
That existing facility is considered too small to meet the growing needs of the community.
Cranford Hospice also provides in-home care within the community with a team of doctors, nurses and family support workers, which will use the new hospice as its base.
Cranford Hospice Foundation chairman Chris Tremain, in an update to supporters, said the foundation was “very excited” to lodge the resource consent application with Hastings District Council.
“We expect to have an outcome of [the application] by January 2026, following which we can then go unconditional on the contract. A huge milestone,” his update read.
“From there, we push on to the tendering and building consent phase, with the aim to start construction in September 2026.”
Layout of the proposed hospice building. Photo / HDC
The new hospice was previously planned to be built on a donated property in Chesterhope, between Napier and Hastings, but that property was badly flooded in Cyclone Gabrielle in 2023.
Tremain said an estimated cost was being finalised, but the project would “cost significantly more than the original target of $15m”.
“This is due to the sizeable increase in construction costs over the past few years.”
The property is zoned general residential, and the wider area was rezoned in 2017 from plains productive to general residential.
Hastings District Council has yet to decide whether the project will be publicly notified, limited notified or non-notified, as it only received the application this week.
There are 40 car parks included in the plans, which will be accessed from Masters Crescent (a new road on the Howard St side of the property). A service entry will also be included from Havelock Rd.
