Kapiti Landing’s stage II set for takeoff

KAY BLUNDELL – Dominion Post. 13/07/2013.

Kapiti Landing’s business park has outlined plans for its second stage of development, at a cost of up to $20 million.

The park, in Kapiti Rd alongside the airport, has lodged resource consent applications for 10 new buildings, including a retail-commercial block; a service station; and a central hub featuring offices and shops, restaurants and bars, and a covered boulevard area for a weekly farmers’ market.

The hub buildings will have a glass roof to provide protection from the weather. Kapiti Aero Club will be shifted to a new building on the southern side of the airport, as its Kapiti Rd frontage is upgraded and landscaped.

The first stage of the development was a 7800-square-metre Mitre 10 megastore, which opened in March 2011, and a complex incorporating a New World supermarket, Kitchen Things and Smiths City.

New World is due to open in three or four weeks, and the other two stores within two months.

Kapiti Landing chairman Sir Noel Robinson said interest was keen and negotiations were under way with companies to lease the proposed office-retail space.

He believed the fast-growing business park, coupled with expanding services at Kapiti Coast Airport and the proposed development of the Kapiti Expressway, would “revolutionise” the coast and boost local employment.

He described the design of the central hub and farmers’ market area as “funky” and relaxed. A theme of long, low buildings featuring natural timber on the exteriors set behind sand-dune landscaping along Kapiti Rd would create a low-key, relaxed ambience.

At the airport, a taxiway will be lengthened by about 250 metres along the western side of the main runway. An obsolete runway will be resealed to provide taxiway access to the new Kapiti Aero Club building and a cluster of new corporate hangars and buildings.

The southern end of the business park will be linked to Ihakara St when traffic volumes justify it.

Todd Property became the major shareholder in the airport and business park last year, and in May announced a $1 billion, 10-year “master plan” to create up to 8000 jobs at Kapiti Landing.