Brent Eastwood: Redevelopment of Kensington Fitness under way

Kensington fitness centre itself is largely untouched since it was first opened in 1986.

Sport Northland recently announced a significant redevelopment of one its key facilities, Kensington Fitness. Situated at Kensington Park in Whangarei, the centre is part of the McKay Stadium facility, first constructed in the late 1970s and under the ownership and management of Sport Northland since 1991.

While the wider McKay Stadium complex has undergone two major redevelopments back in 1998 and 2002, the fitness centre itself is largely untouched since it was opened in 1986.

Sport Northland, a charitable trust, operates Kensington Fitness as its commercial operation with any profit reinvested into its community activities and initiatives aimed at "Enriching lives through play, active recreation and sport" – a role that Kensington Fitness itself plays a big part in achieving.

The redevelopment will see a relocation and complete upgrade of the changing rooms/bathrooms and sauna, a relocation and upgrade of the RPM indoor cycling space into a new cycle studio on the ground floor, a new functional fitness studio on the ground floor and a revamped fitness floor with a vastly increased area on the upper level, confirming the centre as the biggest of its type in the north. The refurbishment will also include a new roof and new air conditioning systems.

Kensington Fitness is one of six facilities that Sport Northland owns, the others being McKay Stadium, Whangarei Aquatic Centre, Bay of Islands Recreation Centre in Kawakawa, the Kauri Coast Community Pool in Dargaville and the Northland Sports House in Kensington, Whangarei.

However, Kensington Fitness is certainly the key one in terms of achieving financial sustainability for the trust, and the time is now right to ensure that we are providing an even more attractive facility for people to get active in, with more space and more fitness options available once completed.

Over the years the Sport Northland board has put in significant planning and prudent financial foresight to ensure that when the time is right, the trust was able to invest into the future of a facility that was started with the community in mind – and that time is now here.

Local project management teams and contractors will be used for the refurbishment including Griffiths and Associates, NPM Construction, Chilltech and Apex Roofing.

One of the key focuses in the redevelopment is Sport Northland's commitment to Northland and Northland businesses given what we have all been through over the past 12 months, and consequently Sport Northland is very proud of the fact that Northland firms and their people will also benefit from the work being completed.

The project will be undertaken in a staged approach over the next 10 months to enable Kensington Fitness to stay operational with minimal disruption to members and users.

Kensington Fitness' large member base, the Sport Northland team and the wider community are hugely excited about the project and are looking forward to the relaunch of Kensington Fitness, which will further cement the facility as the largest, most diverse and up-to-date fitness centre in Te Tai Tokerau.