Ōtaki Māori Racing Club partner with developer to build 500 affordable homes

Dignitaries at the Ōtaki Maori Racing Club. Kirsten Hapeta, Mayor K Gurunathan, Ian Cassels, Megan Woods, Andrew Brown, Teresa Ngobi, Greg Groufsky, Tom Jamison and Caitlin Taylor. Photo / Kāpiti News

The Ōtaki Māori Racing Club has partnered with property developer Ian Cassels' The Wellington Company to put together a proposal to build 500 quality affordable homes in Ōtaki.

It will create a racing village environment complete with community gardens, amenities for creatives and transforming the racing facilities.

Officially formed in 1886, the Ōtaki Racecourse is home to the Ōtaki Māori Racing Club (OMRC), the only Māori-governed racing club in existence.

With its central lower North Island location and excellent training facilities, the track is used daily by up to 40 horses in training.

The housing proposal provides an opportunity to add another chapter to the legacy of OMRC and ensures the financial surety for its racing operations.

The housing will range from standard two-three bedroom houses to mixed blind tenure affordable living.

Club president Tom Jamison said: "Having enjoyed a long, colourful and successful history as a racing and training establishment, in 2018 the club started exploring options for the landholding excess to racing requirements to help support the activities of the club.

"The funds required to deliver a development of this scale was outside our expertise or capacity so we approached Ian Cassels of The Wellington Company."

Jamison said The Wellington Company's focus on community enhancement and environmental longevity was important, as was the alignment with the club's longer-term vision of being sustainable and delivering a great community outcome.

"The Wellington Company has a sincere and genuine understanding of our club's uniqueness and history, as well as our community and its people - this is just one of the many reasons we engaged Ian and his team to undertake the development with us."

The Wellington Company's Caitlin Taylor said the project was about more than providing homes, with the company committing to engaging with Ngā Hapū o Ōtaki, Kāinga Ora and the Kāpiti Coast District Council to develop long-term, sustainable, environmentally responsible and high-quality housing.

"It's about delivering generational change, connecting communities through a much-loved asset, and cherishing very important heritage.

"It's also about ensuring the long-term sustainability of OMRC and introducing a new racing village for all of Ōtaki to enjoy.

"We look forward to introducing our community to the concept and its potential in the coming months."

Cassels said: "We're at the start of our journey".

"We have worked with a high calibre design team to develop concepts to the point where we can have meaningful engagement with the community over the coming months."

Architectural concepts have been created by Moller Architects, Mcindoe Urban has undertaken the urban design and Wraight & Associates have provided landscape architecture.

The Wellington Company will be seeking to lodge resource consent this year with the timeframe for construction planned to be from 2023-2029.