$1m revamp for Kuripuni

Kuripuni is set to become the Ponsonby Road of Wairarapa with a $1 million revamp that promises gourmet dining and boutique shopping for visitors to the retail centre.
Masterton builder and property developer David Borman said his proposal has gained tacit approval from Masterton District Council officers and all other commercial property owners in Kuripuni including the Masterton Licensing Trust and Masterton Trust Lands Trust.
"The idea is to create a Ponsonby Road of Wairarapa that will entice city diners and shoppers to our town and provide metropolitan choices for residents and locals".
Mr Borman already owns six retail properties along the western side of Kuripuni as well as other property holdings throughout the town. He has run a building firm in Masterton since 1992.
The upgrading of his existing properties in Kuripuni will pace development of the vacant section he owns bordering The Countryman Restaurant that he opened earlier this year, and the siting next week of two 100-year-old two-storey buildings relocated from Wellington.
Mr Borman commissioned consultants Boffa Miskell ? the firm involved with the rejuvenation of Queen Elizabeth Park ? to design an entire Kuripuni upgrade.
The revamp of his own properties will proceed regardless of council approval, he said, although the wider development depends on their involvement. He is to make a full submission to the council this week.
"A lot of businesses are clamouring to come to Wairarapa, and to Masterton," Mr Borman said.
"The demand is there and this proposal, if council come aboard, will be a benefit for business and civic interests, and residents, throughout the town and the region. It's for everybody."
His proposal carried a "million dollar-plus" price tag for developers, the Borman Family Trust, and there was already strong interest among potential restaurateurs and retailers wanting to lease commercial space.
He said a revamped Kuripuni would boast at least six restaurants ? at present there are three ? as well as multiple boutique retail spaces for lease.
Refurbishment has started on the facades of his western Kuripuni properties, which will feature cream and green rusticated weatherboards in keeping with the period theme, he said.
The present Supafresh site is to be partitioned and one half turned into a 30-seat specialised restaurant with the possibility of outside dining on the street frontage.
Parking at the rear of the buildings will also be upgraded and a walkway will be created from Kuripuni through to the parking area.
Part of the former Kuripuni Post Shop building, owned by Alan Allsworth, was also to be refurbished as a restaurant over the next eight weeks, facades were to be refurbished on the three neighbouring Masterton Trust Lands Trust buildings, and the bakery was to also undergo a facelift, Mr Borman said.
Included in the development of the vacant section will be the relocation of the two buildings from Wellington and a third 125-year-old Masterton villa on the vacant section between the Kuripuni Hot Bread Shop and The Countryman Restaurant.
There will also be improved rear of building parks for about 30 vehicles, outdoor dining and paving stones, and a 7.5m promenade walkway between the relocated structures and The Countryman Restaurant.
One of the Wellington buildings was originally a Vivian Street cafe complete with frosted windows and a "beautiful old staircase", he said.
A verandah will be added to the building, which will house an art gallery on the top floor and a boutique English-style pub on the ground floor, he said.
With council involvement there will also be a two-lane single roadway through Kuripuni with a "green strip vista" northward from where the toilets are now sited, as well as a period park surrounded by wrought-iron fences and featuring a refurbished gazebo from Wellington that is over 100-years-old that he will gift to council.
The toilets would be moved to a proposed park sited at the rear of the new car park and retail area, which will border Dixon Street and feature the original concrete gateposts from the western entrance to Queen Elizabeth Park.
The proposal also includes provision of a "specialist daily transport service" that would run from near the northern roundabout in Masterton to Kuripuni, he said, which has already gained approval from several franchise retailers in the town.