Yesterdaythe Rotorua Lakes Council confirmed local company Campbell Infrastructure had been awarded contracts for stages 2, 3, and 4 of the project.
The council said the work had been brought forward to be completed over winter to mitigate the impact of the Covid-19 response and to reduce delays to the overall project.
He hoped the project would be "very beneficial for the tourism industry" but he thought free parking would make more of a difference for his cafe than the development would.
Picnic Cafe manager Jason Liu (right). Photo / File
"We are a very local cafe, our customers will come anyway. I have been thinking, instead of putting that much into the lakefront we could have got free parking. That would be so helpful.
"Ninety per cent of customers pay to park close to us because we have a lot of aged customers. It's hard for them to walk far."
Terrace Kitchen owner Jo Romanes is "looking forward to it all being completed".
"In the long-term, it will be good for business, it will be great for the city then. In the short-term, there is a bit of pain with mess and noise."
Construction work at Rotorua's lakefront development site. Photo / Andrew Warner
Rotorua Lakes Council's group manager operations Jocelyn Mikaere said it was "fantastic to see these projects get back up and running again following the nationwide closures during Covid-19 alert levels 4 and 3".
"Currently around 60 people are employed on the lakefront development project and this number will grow as these next stages get under way."
Central government's Provincial Growth Fund is contributing $19.9 million and the council will spend $20.1m between now and 2021 for the $40m development.
Construction work at Rotorua's lakefront development site. Photo / Andrew Warner
