Tauranga’s Memorial Park will undergo a $128m upgrade including a new aquatic centre featuring three hydroslides.

The aquatics centre with bombing pools, splash pad, a toddler pool, and eight indoor 25m swimming lanes and two outdoor lanes will cost $122.25m.

Indoor courts would be built at another location in the city at a cost of $25m.

Tauranga City Council commissioners approved the $153.25m upgrades at a meeting on Monday.

The park hosts the city’s only outdoor lane pool that was built in 1958 and the nearby Queen Elizabeth Youth Centre is a multi-court indoor facility built in 1965.

Both facilities are coming to the end of their useful lives.

The QEYC was classified as high risk after a seismic investigation.

If the building were to remain it would need $128m to bring it up to standard.

Commissioner Shadrach Rolleston grew up in Tauranga and used the pool and courts at the central Tauranga park.

“The community’s used to having those facilities in that location.

"They’ve been well used for a long time.”

Alleviate pressure

The new aquatic centre would alleviate pressure on the current facilities in the city, says BayVenues operation general manager Tina Harris-Ririnui.

“Our network is at capacity.”

Council-controlled organisation BayVenues manages Tauranga’s sport and aquatic facilities.

Tina says BayWave in Mount Maunganui is over capacity.

“The lap pool and all the other spaces in BayWave are heaving.

"So it is punching well above its weight.”

The biggest growth areas are water polo and synchronised swimming, which need deeper water that would be accommodated in the new facility.

“It’s going to meet the needs of structured sport.

"It’s going to meet the needs of leisure and recreation.

“It’s one of those pools that will enable all walks of life to utilise that pool and utilise it really, really well.”

Ōtūmoetai pool

Another pool in the council network that will soon need to be decommissioned is Ōtūmoetai.

The new facility would replace this and better meet the needs of the community, says Tina.

Council staff recommended the commission choose option 3 for the aquatics centre that included two hydroslides and the 25m pool would have eight lanes outdoors with two indoors.

It would have cost $107.4m

The commission opted for option 2 than had the eight lanes indoors and commission chair Anne Tolley wanted to add the two extra hydroslides to this option at an extra cost of $2.4m.

Projected ticket sales for three hydroslides was $32,064. With one it was $21,962 in the first year of opening.

The revenue for three slides would be $161,000.

As part of the $128m upgrade $6m will be spent on enhancing parking, upgrading the play area and adding a wetland play zone, a nature play trail and a new swing area.

The open spaces would also be improved with seating and picnic areas as well as all-weather path access.

A youth play zone with features for skate users would also be added to the park.

The new aquatic facility is expected to open in late-2027 and the cost has been budgeted into the 2021-2031 Long Term Plan.

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