One third of new marina berths in Whangārei snapped up

Brian Caulton and Sharron Beck are pleased with how the sale of new berths is progressing. Photo / Tania Whyte

One third of the new marina berths in Whangārei Harbour have been snapped up— just weeks after they were advertised.

The Whangārei Harbour Marina Management Trust is building 114 berths just downstream of the Te Matau a Pohe bascule bridge and the clearing of mangroves and dredging works will start in March and take a year to complete.

The new marina can accommodate boats up to 35 metres long and an office building with parking will be built on a reclaimed area as part of the project.

Sales to raise capital started two days before Christmas and the trust hopes to raise $15m from the sale of berths while the Whangārei District Council has loaned $5m.

“There’s been good interest and we’re 30 per cent through. There are some that are standing by. That’s really good. We’ve got some firm deposits and there’s a lot of people who are sorting out the investments, getting funds and that sort of thing,” marina manager Brian Caulton said.

An artist's impression of the new marina in the upper Whangārei Harbour.

Trust assistant manager Sharron Beck said the smaller berths had been selling well because it was more the local people who had known about it but now she was getting inquiries coming from Auckland where the bigger boats were struggling to find places to go berth.

She said one of the salespeople she was working with, who had been looking for a berth, didn’t know about the sale of the marina berths but had met someone at a funeral who had seen it in The Northern Advocate who told him about it.

“Because we do focus on a lot of international visiting boats coming here, I just heard from a marina manager in Mexico who said it’s absolutely crazy the number of boats that are on their way next season to come over here.

“There are 50 boats just sitting there, anchored because they can’t get into the marinas there, that are wanting to cross the Pacific. Maybe due to Covid as well, people just want to get out there,” Beck said.

A Northland-based company will undertake the $20m project, just up the harbour from Limeburner’s Creek and accessed off Port Rd, and at least 94 people are expected to be employed during the construction phase.

According to a report prepared by Market Economics around 2019, the local economy is expected to earn $9.4m each year from berthing fees, retail spending, and tourism-related activities once the marina is fully functional. But Beck said that figure would rise to well over $10m, partly due to high inflation.

The Northland Regional Council publicly notified the consent application for the new marinas and associated work in September 2018 and eight of the 10 submissions received supported the venture.

Resource consent for the works runs until 2054.

The trust has 109 moorings at Kissing Point and a 173-berth marina at the Town Basin.