Business Central July 2021

10 | REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT New Zealand Campus of Innovation and Sport NZCIS project making good progress T T Karen Phelps Steel has been erected for the 70m x 50m indoor field and preparation started for four new sand-based turfs. C ovid-19 has thrown a few curveballs at the New Zealand Campus of Innovation and Sport (NZCIS) project in Upper Hutt but it is now making good progress again, says NZCIS sports performance director, Jamie Tout. Siteworks had commenced when the lockdown hit in 2020. Resulting uncertainty saw overseas investment in the project fall through. “Basically we started off running a 100 metre sprint and all of a sudden had to run the 400 metre hurdle. But the good thing is we kept running and we’ve had great sup- port and made massive gains on the project,” says Jamie. The government’s Covid Recovery Fund was a significant factor in getting the project back on track, he says, and work re-started on the site in November. The NZCIS is being built by Holmes Con- struction and so far steel has been erected for the 70m x 50m indoor field and preparation started for four new sand-based turfs. Work on the adjacent recovery pools, sauna, office spaces and cycling studio is also cur - rently underway. “Our aim is to create a world class facility and to create global tourism in sport for New Zealand so we have teams from around the world come here to train. There is nothing like this anywhere in the world,” says Jamie. The 17ha site will eventually include a 1000 square metre gym, an altitude studio, cryo- therapy 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. Jamie says that the rooms have been designed with feedback from athletes who wanted larger beds and showers to accom- modate athletic physics. Covid-19 has also influenced the design, which has been made “pandemic proof” so teams can continue to train regardless, says Jamie. The NZCIS will firmly target teams rather than individual athletes and will cater for elite athletes as well as academies and grassroots teams. “We want to ensure sports teams can survive commercially. By developing infra- structure and shared resources that can be used this means cost efficiencies for sports teams and that their money can be invested where is most important for them. “For example, setting up cameras across the fields for the various teams’ content capture rather than each organisation having to set up its platforms, giving them the ability to attract players and sponsors.” Technology will also play a big part in the athletes’ training and partner NTT, which offers significant expertise 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. The project has been many years in the making. It was in 2015 that developers Mal- colm Gillies and Kevin Melville purchased the Trentham site, which was originally home to the Central Institute of Technology that closed when three Wellington polytechnics merged in 2001. Jamie, part owner of gps company VX Sport, joined the pair in 2016. 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 with discussions also underway with a number of other prominent clubs and national sports bodies. 0800 182 182 www.turfrey.co.nz tenders@turfrey.co.nz Turfrey are proud to be working alongside Holmes Construction, providing a full design and build package for this exciting world-class facility: • Plumbing, Gasfitting & Drainlaying • Design of all Hydraulic Systems • Specification and Drawings “For protection you can trust” Unit C, 25 Peterkin Street, Taita, Lower Hutt, Wellington 0508 4 ALLIANCE | www.alliancefs.co.nz