Popular venue earmarked for village

The site will be developed into a high-specification retirement village.

One of Bethlehem's most recognised and popular wedding venues will be transformed into nearly 200 retirement-village units over the next 10 years, a resource consent application has revealed.

The application involving the 12.5ha Mills Reef site on Moffat Rd aims at developing the site into a high-specification lifestyle retirement village comprising 198 units with associated activities.

The application, available on the Tauranga City Council website, for The Vines at Bethlehem, is expected to be heard next Thursday in a hearing before commissioner Mr Alan Watson. It seeks land-use consent to establish the retirement village which comprises a mix of 142 stand-alone dwellings and 56 duplex dwellings. The dwelling units are expected be a mix of three and two bedroom, units with either double or single garages.

The Vines at Bethlehem development is expected to be built in several stages, starting initially on the far northern boundary of the site on land acquired recently by Mills Reef.

Tim Preston, a director of Preston Group, said the proposed development would feature the landmark art-deco winery building as a centrepiece while incorporating the newest techniques in urban design, roading and streetscaping.

Extensive landscaping would be undertaken and the park-like feeling maintained.

"Bethlehem is a very desirable retirement location because it has the necessary community infrastructure in a village setting, while being close to Tauranga's central business district and the ocean," Mr Preston said.

The owners of Mills Reef accepted it was being squeezed off its site by urban pressures, and had started long-term planning to relocate to a fresh site in the Western Bay that enabled much-needed business expansion, he said.

The development is expected to take up to a decade to complete and the Mills Reef winery, restaurant and wedding venue is expected to stay put for about another five years before relocating to expanded facilities.

Construction activity was not expected to impinge on the popular venue before it relocated, Mr Preston said.

There have already been five submissions in opposition to the application. Among the concerns raised were the effect on existing escarpments; stormwater volumes and associated easements and reduction in property values.

Mills Reef moving
Moving Mills Reef is following a pattern in planning to relocate from a traditional site to make way for urban sprawl. Other well-known wineries that have relocated include Corbans, Villa Maria and Soljans in Auckland, and Vidal in Hastings

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