A follow up to my recent article on the ASB Leisure Centre – and that is to provide an insight into Sport Northland’s involvement with the Whangarei Aquatic Centre.

Following the successful redevelopment of the Sport Northland owned and managed ASB Leisure Centre in 2002 (where Sport Northland was able to turn a $2.2m WDC contribution into a $6.65m redevelopment), WDC approached Sport Northland regarding establishing a similar model for the rapidly aging aquatic centre.

After a lengthy deliberation (mainly centred on if this was core business for Sport Northland), the Sport Northland board finally agreed to takeover ownership of the facility and turn its attention to redeveloping it.

The difference from the Kensington model was the aquatic centre was already being managed by a contracted company (CLM), and Sport Northland was happy to be the owner of the facility, while taking on a monitoring role of this management.

With more excellent support from external funding agencies, Sport Northland was able to complete the redevelopment in 2007 (after some initial controversy around including a 50m pool vs a range of recreational based facilities).

The redeveloped centre has now been operating for nearly 8 years, and it is now safe to say that the right decision was made regarding the design – there is now double the amount of visits coming through the doors compared to pre-redevelopment (now to around 260,000 visits every year).

The result has been fantastic for Whangarei residents (and the wider Northland public). The centre is particularly well-patronised by families (where there is something for all ages), and the bigger water space (well over double what it was) has freed up much needed lane space for the ever-increasing competitive swimming fraternity.

Furthermore, a 50m pool has now been constructed in Dargaville, resulting in big economic and social opportunities for the town and for Swimming Northland and their clubs.

The successful redevelopment of both the major indoor dry facility (ASB Leisure Centre) and the major wet facility (the Whangarei Aquatic Centre) in the city has only been possible through a very successful and unique partnership between Sport Northland and the Whangarei District Council. With the council providing the seed funding and the foresight, and Sport Northland the knowledge and expertise, the result has been a cost effective upgrading of two excellent community facilities.