{"id":294112,"date":"2026-02-20T21:57:14","date_gmt":"2026-02-20T21:57:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/294112\/"},"modified":"2026-02-20T21:57:14","modified_gmt":"2026-02-20T21:57:14","slug":"kerikeri-old-packhouse-market-community-campaign-to-raise-7m-starts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/294112\/","title":{"rendered":"Kerikeri Old Packhouse Market: Community campaign to raise $7m starts"},"content":{"rendered":"

FNRCCT project lead Di Maxwell hoped everyone would \u201cget in behind us\u201d. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s one of the icons in Kerikeri. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a major tourist attraction with people that visit the market, and it supports 155 people with their income. <\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of these people have indicated if they didn\u2019t have the market to sell their produce and products at, their business would have to close. <\/p>\n

\u201cIf we don\u2019t raise the money we\u2019ll have to pull out and it\u2019s likely to be sold for development.\u201d <\/p>\n

The Hylands established the Saturday market<\/a> specialising in Northland-made and grown crafts and produce in 2014. <\/p>\n

Several years later they introduced the Sunday market, then a Friday night market with live music and some of the region\u2019s best street food. <\/p>\n

There are now more than 150 stallholders, 26 people are employed in the cafe, bakery and butchery, and the weekend markets attract thousands of regular customers. <\/p>\n

The Hylands listed the market for sale<\/a>, along with the cafe, bakery and butchery, 5.6ha, two houses, and buildings spanning over 2000sq m, to spend more time with family. <\/p>\n

Only the land and buildings are included in the sale and purchase agreement, as Judy plans to keep running the market and cafe businesses. <\/p>\n

\u201cWhen Judy\u2019s had enough, we\u2019ll step up and ensure it continues running,\u201d Maxwell said. <\/p>\n

\"TheThe Old Packhouse Market is a social hub for the community and an important part of the local economy.<\/p>\n

Judy said she supported the property being retained as a community asset. <\/p>\n

\u201cTo have a property here so close to town … to be used for the good of the community is not something that other towns have. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe fact they want to keep it in perpetuity would be much better for the community than being sold to a developer in another 10 years.\u201d <\/p>\n

FNRCCT is a registered charitable trust established to protect community assets and support long-term social and economic resilience in the Far North.<\/p>\n

Maxwell said she was confident the funds could be raised. <\/p>\n

The trust had undertaken nine months of \u201cintense\u201d due diligence with help from a $20,000 Tai Tokerau impact grant from Northland Inc, she said. <\/p>\n

Economic impact analysis showed the market supports around $7.4m a year in direct economic activity and up to 155 jobs. <\/p>\n

A tourism impact report is underway to further assess its wider contribution to the Far North economy, she said. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve undertaken comprehensive due diligence, developed detailed business plans, completed governance structures, and carefully mapped what could be added once a purchase is complete, all before asking the community to step forward.\u201d <\/p>\n

If the money can\u2019t be raised, smaller donations will be diverted into another local resilience project, and larger donors will be contacted to discuss options, including a refund. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re reasonably confident otherwise we wouldn\u2019t even bother starting,\u201d Maxwell said. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve got to give it our best shot. <\/p>\n

\u201cOne thing is for sure, if the community doesn\u2019t step up it won\u2019t happen.\u201d <\/p>\n

Jenny Ling is a senior journalist at the Northern Advocate. She has a special interest in covering human interest stories, along with finance, roading, and social issues. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"FNRCCT project lead Di Maxwell hoped everyone would \u201cget in behind us\u201d. \u201cIt\u2019s one of the icons in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":294113,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[112271,9526,19092,1558,32131,1738,1259,170,71,16569,16571,225,3025,111,43,139,24926,162457,69,9716,101355,2170,2515,145240,11590,1569,61],"class_list":{"0":"post-294112","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-zealand","8":"tag-7m","9":"tag-another","10":"tag-assets","11":"tag-been","12":"tag-bold","13":"tag-campaign","14":"tag-community","15":"tag-development","16":"tag-from","17":"tag-iconic","18":"tag-kerikeri","19":"tag-market","20":"tag-most","21":"tag-new-zealand","22":"tag-news","23":"tag-newzealand","24":"tag-northlands","25":"tag-notch","26":"tag-nz","27":"tag-old","28":"tag-packhouse","29":"tag-plan","30":"tag-raise","31":"tag-ramped","32":"tag-save","33":"tag-starts","34":"tag-to"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/294112","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=294112"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/294112\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/294113"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=294112"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=294112"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=294112"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}