$30m civic hub a new heart for Otahuhu

Otahuhu's new recreational precint featuresa playground, swimming pool, library and renovated recreational centre.

A newly opened $30.9million recreational hub in Otahuhu is set to rejuvenate the suburb's image and give its locals a place to come together, have fun, get fit, learn something new and interact with their neighbours.

Toia, Otahuhu's recreational and community hub on Mason Avenue, was officially opened earlier this month.

Its features included a revamped recreational centre, a brand-new swimming pool, library, meeting rooms, an outdoor water-splash area, playground, community garden and open outdoor areas. The centre was but one of the new hubs cropping up around the city, as locals look to challenge the sense of poor social cohesiveness that can come with the growing urban sprawl.

Mangere-Otahuhu Local Board chair Lemauga Lydia Sosene said it was a significant investment for the "struggling community" who previously had limited choices for recreation.

She said plans for the centre had been in the making for almost three decades, but numerous bureaucratic hurdles hampered progress.

"This was a significant community that had been forgotten about for a number of decades and was really suffering as result of a number of economic decisions that were out of our control.

"This is a solution in more ways than one for health and wellbeing... as a state of the art facility that really puts Otahuhu back on the map."

Ms Sosene said the facility would provide for children, for families, for the elderly and for the business community.

"It's going to be a place where people can live and play and work quite closely."