Business Central December 2021

| 21 Gillies Group Hi tech sport hub ‘world class facility’ T Karen Phelps The 17ha site will include a 1000 square metre gym, an altitude studio, cryotherapy facilities, recovery pools, four outdoor fields and a 70m by 50m indoor field. DEVELOPMENT Wellington (04) 384 9198 www.rlb.com Rider Levett Bucknall is proud to be supporting and providing Full Quantity Surveying services for SPORTS HUB at NCIS Providing the sports community with greater access to world class training facilities Our team is on your team. Your premier Geotechnical and Environmental engineering consultancy, serving projects in New Zealand and abroad. www.engeo.co.nz AUCKLAND | TAURANGA | WELLINGTON | CHRISTCHURCH | QUEENSTOWN G illies Group is helping to realise the potential of the New Zealand Campus of Innovation and Sport (NZCIS) to create a resource that will be an engine to the Upper Hutt and wider economy, says director of Gillies Group Malcolm Gillies. “The NZCIS, formally the Central Institute of Technology was a learning institute that provided tertiary education and was incredibly popular,” says Malcolm. “It greatly affected the community when its doors closed in 200.” Malcolm says the 17,000sqm2 of buildings and 16 hectares of land remained vacant and not utilised for over a decade before it was de- cided by the education department to sell it. “There was significant interest from resi- dential developers wanting to simply build residential housing on the land but this would have meant that its potential to drive the local economy would have been be lost to the com- munity forever,” he says. Malcolm and fellow developer Kevin Melville purchased the site in 2015 and set about rede- veloping it into a high tech sports education and technology hub. Privately funded the project will total over $100m. “I’m from Upper Hutt and it was a crying shame to have that facility empty,” says Malcolm. “I wanted to put something back into the community and as an entrepreneur it excited me.” The 17ha site will include a 1000 square metre gym, an altitude studio, cryotherapy facilities, recovery pools, four outdoor fields and a 70m by 50m indoor field. There will be a component of commercial real estate including an incubator for tech industries and a training facility for central government agencies such as the Department of Corrections, which opened its National Learning Centre at the campus in 2018. The site already contains an accommoda- tion building with a dining room capable of hosting 200, lecture theatre and conference rooms as well as 350 single occupancy rooms including dormitory and apartment style op- tions. In addition to this 50 new 50sqm rooms will be built to enable athletes to train and recover to their peak potential. Malcolm says that Covid-19 has also influenced the design, which has been made “pandemic proof” so teams can continue to train regardless. Technology will play a big part in the facility and partner NTT, which offers significant ex- pertise in data and sports projects, will install a variety of technology so athletes can collect performance data and then assess it on-site or access it remotely. Malcolm says inclusivity is a key aspect of the project. Changing rooms are gender neu- tral and there are specific facilities for disabled athletes. Mental health of athletes will be a prime fo- cus and programmes, support and technology is being investigated to include in the NZCIS. The NZCIS will firmly target teams rather than individual athletes and will cater for elite athletes as well as academies and grassroots teams. Malcolm says that Covid-19 has thrown a few curveballs at the project but the govern- ment’s Covid Recovery Fund was a significant factor in keeping it on track. The NZCIS is being built by Holmes Con- struction. Other contractors include geotech- nical engineers ENGEO and global property and construction practice Rider Levett Bucknall. The NZCIS is due to open late 2022. The project is expected to generate around 240 local jobs and the finished facility is expected to generate $8m worth of economic activity locally per annum. Anchor tenants include Wellington Rugby and Wellington Phoenix and Malcolm says discussions are also underway with a number of other prominent clubs and national sports bodies. “We think the NZCIS will provide a lot of op- portunities and bring people into the region. “It’s going to be a world class facility and will create global tourism in sport for New Zealand as we will have teams from around the world come here to train. “There is nothing like this anywhere in the world.” “I’m from Upper Hutt and it was a crying shame to have that facility empty. “I wanted to put something back into the community and as an entrepreneur it excited me.”