An artist's impression of what the completed billion-dollar town centre will look like.
A 24-hour gym and food precinct offering a café restaurant, sushi, kebabs and pizza are the latest businesses joining Pāpāmoa East’s new billion-dollar town centre.
It comes as the development, which is expected to create hundreds of jobs, begins construction after decades of planning.
Tauranga City Council has issued a building consent valued at $10.5 million for construction to start on stage one of The Sands Town Centre in Pāpāmoa East.
Details of the new billion-dollar town centre planned for Pāpāmoa East, which will be four times the size of Bayfair Shopping Centre and surrounded by 11,000 new homes, were first revealed in June 2021.
Stage one includes a $100 million aquatic centre with a 50m Olympic-sized pool, a newly-opened health hub and a retirement village. A New World supermarket and Mitre10 Mega were announced last December as the first major tenants of the town centre, around which 11,000 new homes were also planned to be built.
Bluehaven Group chief executive Nathan York said The Sands was making excellent progress and stage one remained on track for completion by Christmas 2024.
This first stage includes a New World supermarket and other tenancies, including an Anytime Fitness gym of “regional scale”, and a new food precinct which will offer a new café restaurant, sushi, kebabs, pizza and more.
“This is a huge milestone to begin construction on The Sands after decades of planning”.
York said following the recent announcement of the Mega Mitre-10, good progress was being made with a range of other new tenants, with further announcements planned over the coming months.
“The development will support significant construction jobs for at least a decade and would ultimately generate many full-time jobs as well.”
York said the stage one works, Mitre 10 Mega, and the newly-opened Papamoa Pines Medical @ Whitora alone will create 350 new jobs.
The commercial work also complimented what York described as the most active new housing development area in Tauranga.
“Pāpāmoa continues to be the largest by population and fastest growing suburban area of Tauranga, and likely the Bay of Plenty”.
He also acknowledged the co-investment from Tauranga City Council.
“I want to commend and acknowledge the significant infrastructure co-investment from the Tauranga City Council - particularly with roading and the new Pāpāmoa Eastern Interchange works.
“With momentum continuing for our next stages of The Sands and the ongoing infrastructure investment, we will continue seeing a lot more physical progress on the site in the coming months and years, and the delivery team is going to be busy for a long time”.
Anytime Fitness owner Mike Ball said Golden Sands was growing rapidly in Tauranga and it was great to be part of the first stage of the new town centre.
“The businesses that will be coming through the different stages of the project being built and the location of the town centre will help attract a lot of people not only in Pāpāmoa but from Whakatane, and Paengaroa too.”
Ball said it would be the fourth Anytime Fitness he had opened in the Bay of Plenty, including Tauriko, Tauranga and Pāpāmoa.
“It is going to be the biggest Anytime Fitness I have built to date.”
Livingstone Building has been contracted to carry out the construction work, with HEB and Bay Civil carrying out the civil works.
Brook Carrington, regional manager from Livingstone Building, said the company was delighted to be involved in such a high-profile and vibrant project that will add significant amenities to the area.
“We see The Sands as once-in-a-generation development,” he said.
Gareth Brown, construction manager for HEB Construction, said the company was leading an enormous amount of civil works in the Pāpāmoa area.
“It is great to be partnering with Bluehaven and Bay Civil, on what is clearly a major project for the Bay of Plenty, and important for the local residents and business communities.”
Western Bay of Plenty economic development agency Priority One Chief executive Nigel Tutt said it was great to see the Sands Town Centre making swift progress.
“This development is very significant for Pāpāmoa and brings access to much-needed housing stock for the city.
“I am particularly interested in the commercial developments also; which will provide Pāpāmoa residents with a wider range and quantity of services, alongside providing the capacity for local businesses to grow.”
Retail NZ chief executive Greg Harford said retailers brought vibrancy and connections to communities.
“A new retail area for Pāpāmoa is a good thing for the sector,” he said.
“With the current and expected population levels of Pāpāmoa and even Tauranga, developments like this support the community through variation in retail offerings, employment opportunities, economic contribution and a community hub.”
An open day was planned for The Sands Town Centre on Saturday from 10am to 2pm to promote its building partners and their show homes in the East Quarter, including family fun activities and a sausage sizzle.
- Health Hub, including primary and secondary care facilities to service the Eastern corridor
- Government services including police, fire, St John Ambulance and Ministry of Social Development
- Community facilities including public transport, civic space, library, combined aquatic and indoor centre and more active reserve spaces
- Huge residential options including apartments, townhouses and retirement village/s
- Retail, hospitality, hotels and commercial office spaces, showrooms and home improvement tenancies
50m competition pool
25m learn-to-swim pool
2 x hydroslides - toddlers, bombing & leisure pools
Spa pools
Hydrotherapy and programme pool
300 poolside seats + 500 seats upstairs
Outdoor hot water leisure pools
Wet changing area
Café & reception
Car parks
Source: Bluehaven Group