Business Central September 2020

4 | Volume 5 | Issue 3 DEVELOPMENT » New Zealand Campus of Innovation and Sport Innovative facility gets funding boost The 17ha site which was originally home to the Central Institute of Technology, will include a 1000 square metre gym, an altitude studio, cryotherapy facilities, recovery pools, four outdoor fields and a 70m by 50m indoor field. Karen Phelps T he New Zealand Campus of Innovation and Sport (NZCIS) in Upper Hutt has received $30 million in the latest round of shovel-ready project government funding. NZCIS sports performance director, Jamie Tout, says the announcement has been a “huge boost” for the project. “There is responsibility that comes with the excitement,” Jamie says. “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,” he says. 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 infrastructure 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 we will set up an e-commerce platform to help teams sell merchandise. Rather than each organisation having to set up its own platform they can leverage off our platform and technology, giving them the ability to attract players and sponsors.” Technology will also play a big part in the atheletes’ training and partner NTT, which offers significant expertise in data and sports projects, will install a variety of technology including wearable sensors and video tracking so athletes can collect performance data and then assess it on-site or access it remotely. The 17ha site which was originally home to the Central Institute of Technology 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 accommodation 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 options. In addition to this 50 new 50sqm rooms will be built to enable athletes to train and recover to their peak potential. Jamie says the rooms have been designed with feedback from athletes who wanted larger beds and showers to accommodate athletic physiques. Jamie says that the focus has been firmly on creating something that would complement existing facilities in the region. For example he says the decision was made not to include a swimming pool due to an existing facil- ity in Upper Hutt and a project underway in Naenae, but to instead focus on e recovery tools, such as a cryotherapy room and hydrotherapy pools. The project has been many years in the making. It was in2015 that developers Malcolm Gillies and Kevin Melville purchased the Trentham site after the Central Institute of Technology closed following the 2001 merger of three Wellington polytechnics. Jamie, part owner of gps company VX Sport, joined the pair in 2016. The NZCIS is being built by Holmes Construction and already had two thirds of the piles in the ground for the sports facility when Covid-19 hit. “Rather than each organisation having to set up its own platform they can leverage off our platform and technology....” Jamie expects the NZCIS to take around 18 months to be completed once construction activity starts again. 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 year. Anchor tenants Wellington Rugby, Wellington Phoenix, and Baseball NZ have already committed to use the hub. The Wattbike has been the benchmark in static cycling for over a decade and remains the best riding tool in the world for performance data. Wattbike by Iconsport – New Zealand distributors – are delighted that the New Zealand Campus of Innovation and Sport has chosen the Wattbike Pro and Trainer for its world class gym. We wish the centre the best of success in the future and look forward to watching the success stories emerge in future years. Power up your tness like a champion—and choose Wattbike ! wattbike@iconsport.co.nz 07 552 5833 or 0210 2711926 www.iconsport.co.nz WattbikeNZ