Grand Wairarapa plans for licensing trust

DEVELOPING NICELY: An artist's impression of the new Featherston complex, where the first sod will be turned early next year.

The sale of 16 Trust House-owned homes in Masterton is not a sign of a tight financial situation but a means of paying for two projects about to get under way.

Eight houses in Newland Place and another eight in an as yet unspecified location on Masterton's west side have been sold to finance the construction of the $2.3 million Featherston supermarket complex and a $600,000 development of The Horseshoe at Masterton's northern end.

Trust House chief executive Alan Pollard confirmed last week that building will start on the long-awaited Featherston supermarket in Fitzherbert St. The first sod will be turned on January 13.

The complex will involve the re-development of the existing supermarket on the corner of Fitzherbert and Johnston Sts, and new buildings extending to the southern boundary of land where the old Featherston Post Office once stood.

Mr Pollard said the community-owned enterprise was in no doubt the supermarket was needed and would succeed.

Its success was a "no brainer", he said, and the supermarket would be welcomed by customers not only in Featherston but also in Greytown, which has lost its trust-owned community store.

Mr Pollard said the Featherston supermarket would be going a step further than Greytown's Fresh Choice when it came to customer service.

"For a starter we will have full banking facilities and a full New Zealand Post Shop, not just a bureau."

The new supermarket is expected to be up and running by mid-July.

Plans are afoot to invest over half a million dollars in The Horseshoe in Masterton to provide a new-look community pub offering " extremely good food and facilities" along with a change of name.

The tavern will be re-named The Farriers and part of the makeover will involve the installation of a 1.2-tonne wood-fired pizza oven which is being imported from overseas and which will be located right next to the public bar, allowing patrons the experience of seeing pizzas being cooked.

Mr Pollard said the trust would also be building a "massive deck and courtyard area" at The Farriers.

He said the trust board had been faced with two choices when it came to financing the two projects, either to borrow the money or selectively sell off houses to pay for them and therefore not add debt, or involve paying interest on loans.

He said Wairarapa Building Society had bought the eight Newland Place homes and the others had been sold to a local investor he was not yet able to name.

The sale of the homes left Trust House with a housing portfolio of 496 properties from Dannevirke in the north to Featherston in the south.