{"id":279264,"date":"2026-02-11T20:39:08","date_gmt":"2026-02-11T20:39:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/279264\/"},"modified":"2026-02-11T20:39:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-11T20:39:08","slug":"kainga-ora-to-sell-fenton-st-rotorua-transitional-housing-site-after-11m-spend","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/279264\/","title":{"rendered":"K\u0101inga Ora to sell Fenton St, Rotorua transitional housing site after $11m spend"},"content":{"rendered":"

K\u0101inga Ora spent a further $3m on renovations<\/a> converting it into 30 transitional housing units able to cater for 70 people.<\/p>\n

The site was also controversially granted a resource consent for this use without being publicly notified.<\/p>\n

Resident lobby group Restore Rotorua used it as a catalyst to spark a legal fight with the Ministry of Housing and Urban Development and Rotorua Lakes Council, pushing for public consultation on future similar applications. <\/p>\n

Late last year, the 16 households living in 2six5 on Fenton were moved out after its geothermal bore, which provided heating and hot water, broke. <\/p>\n

K\u0101inga Ora said at the time the bore was at the end of its operational life, and the agency was considering options for the site.<\/p>\n

Why K\u0101inga Ora is selling<\/p>\n

K\u0101inga Ora director of supported housing Lucy Ashby this week said the broken bore and other age\u2011related issues across the buildings and site meant remediation would require significant investment.<\/p>\n

Ashby said work would start soon to prepare the property for sale, which included demolishing the buildings to ensure the site was safe and secure.<\/p>\n

\"TheThe former Boulevard Motel on Fenton St. Photo \/ Andrew Warner<\/p>\n

\u201cThis will make the site more appealing for potential buyers.\u201d<\/p>\n

She said proceeds from the sale would be reinvested into new social housing.<\/p>\n

Ashby said the property was bought in 2021 as part of an \u201curgent Government response to meet an unprecedented spike in emergency housing need in Rotorua\u201d. <\/p>\n

Since 2022, 174 households have stayed at 2six5 on Fenton.<\/p>\n

\"TheThe former Boulevard Motel on Fenton St. Photo \/ Andrew Warner<\/p>\n

She said many had moved into some of the 395 new K\u0101inga Ora homes delivered in Rotorua since July 2023.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe will continue to keep local stakeholders, including the [Rotorua Lakes] Council, updated.\u201d<\/p>\n

She said Wera Aotearoa Charitable Trust, the organisation contracted by the Government to manage the site and provide wrap-around support, helped residents move into alternative housing.<\/p>\n

The geothermal bore would be capped this month in line with WorkSafe requirements, Ashby said.<\/p>\n

\u2018Waste of taxpayer money\u2019<\/p>\n

Rotorua MP Todd McClay said the previous Government should never have bought the motel for permanent emergency housing as it was not needed and quickly became a liability.<\/p>\n

He said the previous Government overspent, considering the the $11.1m price tag against the 174 households who lived there.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey paid too much for it, and it now runs at a cost of $63k per family helped. They should be embarrassed at this appalling waste of taxpayer money.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"RestoreRestore Rotorua chairman Trevor Newbrook outside the former Boulevard Motel in 2021 after the controversial sale. Photo \/ Andrew Warner<\/p>\n

He said Fenton St had been \u201creclaimed\u201d with the final homeless motels<\/a> having closed.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m glad this site will now be put to better use.\u201d<\/p>\n

Restore Rotorua chairman Trevor Newbrook said the former Boulevard Motel\u2019s history was, in his view, \u201ctypical of how government departments operated under the last Labour Government\u201d. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt is very easy to spend other people\u2019s money.\u201d<\/p>\n

In addition to the $11.1m spent to buy and renovate the motel, he said there would now be legal and resource consent<\/a> costs, costs to demolish the motel and prepare the site for building, real estate agent fees and internal staff costs.<\/p>\n

Newbrook said an \u201cunprecedented\u201d spike in emergency housing need in Rotorua was in his opinion created by the Government at the time allowing people to relocate to Rotorua from other places<\/a>. <\/p>\n

\u201cChris Hipkins is on record saying they received bad advice<\/a> about emergency housing in Rotorua \u2013 and we keep on paying for it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"LabourLabour housing spokesman Kieran McAnulty. Photo \/ File<\/p>\n

In response to the criticisms, Labour housing spokesman Kieran McAnulty asked where those who were living at the site had gone.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe know they haven\u2019t built or acquired enough houses for these people, nor have they spent adequate money on maintaining the portfolio they have left \u2013 we\u2019ll see more tales of rundown housing managed by K\u0101inga Ora because [Housing Minister] Chris Bishop hasn\u2019t funded housing properly.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hope for the future<\/p>\n

Regarding the upcoming sale of the Fenton St site, Rotorua Chamber of Commerce chief executive Melanie Short said the chamber welcomed any opportunity to attract new investment and development into Rotorua.<\/p>\n

\u201cNot only does this help build confidence in Rotorua as a strong place to invest, but it also creates jobs and opens up opportunities for local suppliers and contractors to get involved.<\/p>\n

\u201cOverall, it\u2019s a positive step for the city.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kelly Makiha<\/a> is a senior journalist who has reported for the Rotorua Daily Post for more than 25 years, covering mainly police, court, human interest and social issues.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"K\u0101inga Ora spent a further $3m on renovations converting it into 30 transitional housing units able to cater…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":279265,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[12619,74,111317,3339,23543,111,43,139,69,23544,1327,13311,1857,14040,11420,61,111316],"class_list":["post-279264","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-11m","tag-after","tag-fenton","tag-housing","tag-kinga","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-ora","tag-rotorua","tag-sell","tag-site","tag-spend","tag-st","tag-to","tag-transitional"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/279264","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=279264"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/279264\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/279265"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=279264"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=279264"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=279264"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}