Stocktake of recent and planned investment and enabling opportunities and initiatives (Draft August 2009) ROTORUA INVESTMENT ANALYSIS: STOCKTAKE OF RECENT AND PLANNED INVESTMENT AND ENABLING OPPORTUNITIES AND INITIATIVES DRAFT FOR FEEDBACK PREPARED BY APR CONSULTANTS FOR DESTINATION ROTORUA ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT UNIT AUGUST 2009 i Stocktake of recent and planned investment and enabling opportunities and initiatives (Draft August 2009) CONTENTS 1.0 INTRODUCTION................................................................................................................... 3 2.0 METHODOLOGY.................................................................................................................. 3 3.0 PUBLIC INVESTMENT......................................................................................................... 4 3.1 Main Areas of Rotorua District Council Recent Annual Spend ......................................... 4 3.2 Rotorua Regional Airport's trans-Tasman capability ......................................................... 6 3.3 Rotorua Hospital Redevelopment ..................................................................................... 6 3.4 District Marketing............................................................................................................... 7 3.5 The Great New Zealand Touring Route (GNZTR) ............................................................ 7 3.6 National Cycleway Project................................................................................................. 7 3.7 Rotorua in Gear Project.....................................................................................................8 3.8 Energy Efficiency Conservation Authority Grant – Waiariki Gasification Plant ................. 8 4.0 PUBLIC/PRIVATE INVESTMENT ........................................................................................ 9 4.1 Rotorua Lakefront Redevelopment ................................................................................... 9 4.2 Film Central....................................................................................................................... 9 4.3 Opening of the National Centre of Excellence for Conservation and Environmental Sustainability- Waiariki................................................................................................................. 10 5.0 PRIVATE INVESTMENT .................................................................................................... 11 5.1 Central North Island (CNI) forests iwi collective deed of settlement ............................... 11 5.2 Ngāti Whakaue Master Plan for Rotorua East ................................................................ 11 5.3 Waipa Valley Business and Recreation Park – EROS Capital Ltd.................................. 12 5.4 Eastgate Business Park .................................................................................................. 13 5.5 Skyline Skyrides Redevelopment.................................................................................... 13 5.6 Polynesian Spa Upgrade................................................................................................. 13 5.7 Redevelopment of former Post Office into Royal Court Apartments ............................... 13 5.8 Te Puia Redevelopment.................................................................................................. 14 6.0 SPORTS, ARTS AND TOURISM EVENTS........................................................................ 15 6.1 Tourism Rendezvous New Zealand (2007, 2008)........................................................... 15 6.2 UCI Trials World Cup – 2009 .......................................................................................... 15 6.3 Ragamuffin Music Festival .............................................................................................. 15 6.4 Rugby League Test Match – 2009 .................................................................................. 16 6.5 International Netball – 2009 ............................................................................................ 16 6.6 Jambalaya Festival New Zealand – 2010 ....................................................................... 16 6.7 Rugby World Cup – 2011................................................................................................ 16 7.0 ENABLERS OF ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT: STRATEGIES AND PLANS .................. 17 7.1 Rotorua Eastern Basin Structure Plan ............................................................................ 17 7.2 Rotorua Western Basin Structure Plan ........................................................................... 17 7.3 Rotorua Retail Strategy................................................................................................... 17 7.4 Rotorua Central Business District Revitalisation Strategy............................................... 18 7.5 Rotorua Events Strategy ................................................................................................. 18 7.6 Rotorua Parks Asset Management Plan ......................................................................... 18 7.7 Rotorua Geothermal Regional Plan ................................................................................ 18 7.8 Bay of Plenty Regional Land transport Plan.................................................................... 19 7.9 Bay of Plenty Economic Strategy.................................................................................... 19 7.10 Rotorua Lakes Strategy................................................................................................... 19 7.11 Rotorua Employment Skills Strategy............................................................................... 20 ii Stocktake of recent and planned investment and enabling opportunities and initiatives (Draft August 2009) 1.0 INTRODUCTION Rotorua District Council (RDC) is establishing a $7 million economic development fund to grow the local economy and tackle impacts from the global economic recession. The Grow Rotorua Development Fund will see $3.5 million allocated in each of the next two financial years (2009/10 and 2010/11). APR Consultants Ltd has compiled a series of reports that review available information to aid and inform stakeholder input around the development fund. Reports written or being compiled are as follows: • Industry Overview. • Global and National Emerging Industries Analysis. • Complementary Funding Sources. • Inventory of Current/Planned Major Investments. • Exemplars of Funding Criteria in other Areas. This report is the fourth in the series and presents a stock-take of recent and planned investment and enabling opportunities and initiatives in Rotorua’s economy. This report’s information, in combination with that in other background reports, seeks to facilitate debate around potential policies in regard to how the Fund will operate in terms of: • The likely scale of any new enterprise that may be attracted. • The number of new jobs that any new enterprise would create, including skills, qualifications, and experience. • The unique potential of any new enterprise to add vitality and variety to the local economy and community. • The ability of any new enterprise to complement existing businesses. • The track record of a new enterprise and those associated with it, in other communities or countries. • Compatibility with the District’s current economy. 2.0 METHODOLOGY Within this report, current or planned initiatives in the Rotorua economy have been grouped in terms of: • Public investment. • Public/private investment. • Private investment. • Sports, arts and tourism events. • Enablers of economic development (strategies and plans). It is not intended that this report provides a comprehensive list of initiatives, but rather a helpful indication of significant areas of recent and planned investment activity in the District’s economy. Under each initiative’s sub-heading, web-links are provided to additional information as well as a brief description of the initiative. 3 Stocktake of recent and planned investment and enabling opportunities and initiatives (Draft August 2009) 3.0 PUBLIC INVESTMENT 3.1 Main Areas of Rotorua District Council Recent Annual Spend Council spending is included in this report as it is one of the largest single sources of ongoing investment in the District’s economy. Council spending is funded by rates, borrowed funds and various disbursements from government and other sources. Council expenditure in the 2008/09 June financial year provides and indication of the areas and activities in the local economy that the Council has invested in or supported recently. Table 1 shows the Rotorua District Council’s (RDC) annual operating spend for the year ended June 2009 in terms of activity groups (refer also to Figure 1). The largest spend on the local economy in this period was on Infrastructure (46.1%) followed by Social and Cultural (34.5%), Environment (10.0%) and Economic (5.7%) activity groups. Table 1: Breakdown of Rotorua District Council’s 2008/2009 Operating Expenditure Expenditure category Operating Expenditure ($’s in thousands) % breakdown Castlecorp Bus Unit 154 0.2% Community Leadership 3,737 3.8% Corporate Wide 849 0.9% Economic 5,686 5.7% Environment 9,897 10.0% Infrastructure 45,786 46.1% Social and Cultural 34,244 34.5% Total 100,353 Less Internal Charges Included in operating expenditure 991 Total Operating Expenditure 99,362 100.0% Source: