Tauranga City Council commissioners to front business community at public event

The city's commissioners will front the business community this month. Photo / Supplied

Long-term confidence, land availability and a "desire for a big vision for Tauranga" will be hot topics as the city's new commissioners front the business community in their first public event.

The Tauranga Chamber of Commerce is hosting a Business @ Breakfast for the business community in which the Tauranga City Council commissioners will outline their plans for the city.

It is timely as public submissions on the Long-Term Plan open in early May.

Chamber events manager Anne Pankhurst said the commissioners were keen to hear from the business community and hoped to understand what challenges they were experiencing and what was going well.

"On the other hand, this is a chance for the community to understand what role the commissioners play in the future of our city, how they plan to execute their strategy and their overall mandate."

Chamber events manager Anne Pankhurst. Photo / George Novak

ABC Business Sales corporate and advisory director Andrew Wright said he was hoping attendees would get a sense of clarity about the way forward for Tauranga and its business community.

"The majority of the business people I've spoken to are actually really passionate about the region and keen to invest and grow here.

"There seems to be a real desire for a big vision for Tauranga; a clear understanding of the opportunity we've got and how we're going to get there from here."

Wright said long-term confidence was a key challenge.

"There's certainly some sector-specific challenges, but mainly I think most business owners view Tauranga as a hugely advantageous place to do business with the Port, being an attractive place for staff to live etc."

For example, Wright said he had a number of cases where concerns around available development land and housing had been issues for businesses.

"Both in terms of staff being able to secure and afford housing, but also the number of businesses that support our building and land development being unsure of their forward work prospect in two to three years' time.

"There's been concern about the pipeline of available development land for a number of years and, if that dries up, the flow-on effect would pretty wide."

In general, Wright said the city, excluding the CBD, had been "having a great run".

"Over the last five to seven years, we've seen the business market really move from a lot of 'buy a job' if you want to live here, to there being a great range of jobs on offer and a really attractive place to live for highly skilled staff.

"In our business, this has seen a change to buyers wanting to acquire larger businesses.

"Tauranga is definitely on the map for investors and people looking to acquire high-quality businesses – there's no shortage of relatively wealthy buyers keen to buy into the area, and enjoy lifestyle whilst still growing meaningful businesses."

Chamber chief executive Matt Cowley. Photo / George Novak

Tauranga Chamber of Commerce chief executive Matt Cowley said the commissioners understood the value of engaging with the Chamber and the business community early.

Cowley said their input would be key to upcoming decisions around issues such as infrastructure, traffic and the future of the CBD.

"The commissioners must make major decisions for the city within a short timeframe. They must develop a draft Long-Term Plan in a matter of weeks of them starting.

"They want to hear the issues and perspectives of local businesses."

The Details

• Business @ Breakfast is at Trinity Wharf on March 30 from 7.30am to 9pm.

• The chamber is also hosting its monthly BA5 networking event at the Tauranga City Council on April 7 at 5.15pm.

• Tickets for both events are on sale through the chamber website.