The proposal follows the council\u2019s 2025\/26 Annual Plan consultation, with the council signalling its intention to find a new operator for the resort to reduce its ongoing financial commitments, including maintenance and renewals, capital investment, and debt-servicing costs.<\/p>\n
It comes after a report commissioned by the council which looked into 10 of the council\u2019s major assets, including the resort, the National Aquarium of New Zealand, McLean Park, Napier Conferences & Events (at the War Memorial), Napier i-Site, Par2 MiniGolf, Napier Municipal Theatre, Ocean Spa, Bay Skate and the Napier Aquatic Centre.<\/p>\n
The report found that the businesses were mostly unprofitable.<\/p>\n
Napier Mayor Richard McGrath said selling Kennedy Park Resort and leasing the land would unlock the facility\u2019s potential as a premier holiday park, while reducing the council\u2019s financial liabilities.<\/p>\n
He said the resort had always been a popular choice with Napier visitors.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe believe an operator with broad industry experience and expertise will lift it to the next level.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis proposal removes council\u2019s financial risk from running the resort, while keeping an important tourist facility operational.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said it was a win-win proposal for residents and ratepayers.<\/p>\n
If the proposal went ahead, Hampshire would operate the resort as a holiday park and not use it for any other purpose.<\/p>\n
The initial lease term is 20 years, with an option for a further 10 years.<\/p>\n
A council spokesperson said the lease allowed the council to buy Kennedy Park Resort back from Hampshire after 30 years if Hampshire decided not to renew the lease.<\/p>\n
McGrath said, regardless of the outcome, the resort was still open for business.<\/p>\n
The sale would mean Kennedy Park Resort\u2019s employees would move to Hampshire (NZ) Limited, while keeping the same employment conditions.<\/p>\n
Staff were being consulted about the proposal.<\/p>\n
Set on 5.7ha in Storkey St, the region\u2019s largest accommodation provider was established in 1937 by the Napier council and named after Hawke\u2019s Bay pioneer Charles Kennedy.<\/p>\n
The council is calling for feedback on the proposal and is holding a community drop-in at the Napier resort on Monday, October 12, from 12pm to 2pm.<\/p>\n
Feedback is open until October 23.<\/p>\n
LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The proposal follows the council\u2019s 2025\/26 Annual Plan consultation, with the council signalling its intention to find a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":609480,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[18479,1443,1135,155157,2199,1656,5205,2082,3047,1132,3607,111,43,139,69,1118,8143,3587,531,1133,13311,666,61,14638],"class_list":["post-609479","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-20m","tag-about","tag-australian","tag-australianowned","tag-city","tag-company","tag-council","tag-for","tag-kennedy","tag-million","tag-napier","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-of","tag-park","tag-proposes","tag-resort","tag-sale","tag-sell","tag-struggling","tag-to","tag-wants"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/609479","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=609479"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/609479\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/609480"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=609479"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=609479"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=609479"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}