How do you make “one of the best beaches” even better? One local man thinks he has the answer.
“We have incredible coasts, and we have incredible beaches right in our city… but there’s no real facility for people to use here,” says Dave Miller.
Dave’s idea is for a multi-million-dollar beach sports complex and pavilion on the Tāhunanui Reserve that he is calling Tātahi Central.
The concept includes a restaurant and café, meeting spaces, rooftop viewing platform, gear storage garages for beach sport groups, a gym, a washdown area, and courts for various sports.
A pavilion that could host medium-sized events like sports competitions, music gigs, and business conferences.
People had been “super supportive” thus far, and several sport groups had already indicated an interest in occupying the garages.
The project was earmarked for the site currently occupied by the Beach Café and volleyball courts, and it is hoped that the facility would help increase year-round activity at the beach.
Dave says the complex would be profitable, with early estimates of annual turnover of $1.5 million and another $7m of wider economic benefit if it hosted two conferences a month.
“It would be a massive benefit to the whole region to build something like this.”
The project is in its infancy, but Tāhunanui liaison councillor Campbell Rollo says the concept has potential.
“It was quite a really cool idea that would cater to a number of sporting codes, but also open a bit of vision for what Tāhuna Beach may be in the future.”
Campbell says beaches play a key role in getting people into sport, and improving Tāhunanui’s facilities would help.
“If you go down there now, the facilities are pretty dire, and so people get put off by seeing those facilities,” he says.
“I think it’s an excellent opportunity.”
Dave presented his idea to Nelson City Council earlier this month.
He told elected members that he expected the facility to be council-owned and hoped that the council would consider funding half of its “ballpark” $10m cost through its upcoming long-term plan (LTP).
Dave added that his multi-use concept differed from the specialised Nelson Surf Life Saving Club’s clubhouse project, to which the council had contributed $1.6m.
Mayor Nick Smith had said that the council was under “huge” fiscal pressure, and that any council contribution had to be supported by other funding sources.
“I know of about four or five projects of this scale being proposed for the LTP, and this council collectively has got some very hard choices to make about which of those would proceed or not.”
He added that Tāhunanui Beach was an “exceptional asset” and how it was utilised in the future was a “big call”.
“We’re certainly not in a position to outright fund that sort of project,” agrees Campbell.
“But certainly, if there’s groups that are… willing to front up with some capital, I know it’s a conversation that we would love to see continue.”
Dave’s next steps were getting his concept professionally costed, meeting with the Tāhunanui Business and Citizens Association, and building wider support with other stakeholders.
“Public thoughts may hopefully sway where that money is being spent and which one of those that the council does… but I’d hope that this is one that really sticks in the community’s mind,” he says.
“[Tāhunanui Beach] is a phenomenal asset, and to have a central hub where people can come get everything they need for a day at the beach… it would be brilliant.”
