It was awaiting two funding applications, from Trust Waikato and Lottery Community Facilities, to be confirmed next month, he said.
“We are working really hard, meeting with a lot of different funders, we are hoping that by the end of the year we will have some funds secured,” Thompson said.
A meeting with iwi had been positive.
“Being able to be in the room with experience, we had some good advice around governance and funding”.
He confirmed a Ngāti Pū representative had been elected.
A staged approach to funding had been recommended.
“What we are doing is applying for funds for design, once we get to stage of concept design we can apply for capital funding.”
Thompson said there were huge celebrations when the trust heard the council had approved its application.
“After 50 years of trying, this is finally becoming a reality, our job is tempering that excitement.
“A huge amount of support and excitement, we have to journey with people through that process.”
The next step of supporting the establishment of a community marae and wellbeing hub over part of the land would be to approve commencing a process to have the Minister of Lands, by notice, declare the land to be set apart for other local work.
Once land had been publicly gazetted, leases may be entered into to establish the facility.
The Whangamatā Community Marae committee was first registered as an incorporated society in 1990.
The committee subsequently moved to a trust structure and was registered as a charitable trust in 2022.
Its mission statement is to establish a modern, state-of-the-art marae facility that will benefit the whole community of Whangamatā and surrounding areas, to administer a marae facility to provide for education, tangihanga, hui, wānanga, arts and any other event or activity with a community purpose and benefit and to provide educational opportunities to the Whangamatā community on tikanga Māori and te reo Māori.
