Papamoa Surf Club still $700,000 short: 'We are desperate to go forward'

The Papamoa Surf Lifesaving Club is planning a rebuild but is short the funds. Photo / George Novak

Costs to rebuild the ageing Papamoa Surf Club are increasing faster than donations have been received, leaving the club $700,000 short of its $5.2 million budget.

The club has not yet to received enough funds to rebuild its rapidly deteriorating clubhouse, works for which was expected to start next month, despite already scaling back the project to the "bare bones".

Papamoa Surf Life Saving Club president Andrew Hitchfield said the club had raised a generous $4.4m but was still about $700,000 shy of pushing go on the project.

"We are absolutely desperate to go forward," he said. "But we do not want to leave a legacy of debt."

The 1990-building was originally built for 100 members, but the club now has more than 800.

Hitchfield said the main beams of the club were starting to rot and there had been "a few leaks", which club members with plumbing and building skills had helped to maintain.

"We have used our own resources to fix as we go," he said.

There was also not enough space to store their equipment, which was currently squeezed into a couple of cargo containers.

The new build would triple the size of the current building and would run along the sand dunes, and create more storage for the club.

Hitchfield said they had already scaled back the project after reviewing the build about six months ago.

"We took out everything we could without compromising the build," he said. "We have got down to what we believe are the bare bones."

Hitchfield said the club would not start the rebuild until they had the full amount of funding. They were confident negotiations with potential funders could help to get them over the line. However, those discussions were still up in the air.

If successful, the club would start the rebuild project next month and ideally have the new clubhouse completed by November.

It was likely the club would have to operate out of temporary accommodation during patrol season during the construction period, Hitchfield said.

The club president said it was challenging to have to cover operational costs as well as try to generate revenue to support its new club build.

"The reality is, it costs a few hundred thousand each year to keep the club running," he said.

That cost covers wages, club maintenance, and keeping equipment up to date, which included IRBs and vehicles that came with a price tag of about $30,000.

"We need at least two of them and they last about three or four years," he said.

Hitchfield said the $4.4m had come from an original cornerstone fund of about $1m from the Tauranga City Council, two TECT grants worth $900,000 and the NZ Lotteries and Lion Foundation, as well as other businesses.

Funding had also come from the club's charity rebuild project.

In December 2018, a 383sq m section at Lot 303 Te Wharo Dr was donated by Terrace Views to help raise the money needed to fund the $5m rebuild and GJ Gardner offered to build the 182sq m house.

To donate, search Papamoa Surf Lifesaving Club on www.givealittle.co.nz