The 71.84ha property housing Onepū Mountain Bike Park is now for sale. Photo / LDR
Land housing a popular mountain bike park is on the market, sparking hopes from the biking community that public access will remain.
The 71.84ha property that contains Onepū Mountain Bike Park is now for sale.
The park was founded in 2011 by Bill Clark on land belonging to Norske Skog, with cycling enthusiast Kim van der Aa.
Clark believes Whakatāne District Council should consider buying the park, which has 64ha of radiata pine.
Clark said the bike park was one of the most frequented recreational areas in the Eastern Bay and as well as being an asset for recreation in the district, the surrounding forest could also become a financial asset.
He said he knew of potential buyers, including a group of affluent Whakatāne businessmen, looking at the property with the aim of keeping it as a park.
"As long as there is a reasonable commercial return, they would like to do something for the community. Which is great, but it really should be a district council asset.
"The mountain bike park has morphed into something way bigger than I ever imagined and is now a really valuable community recreational asset. It has prevailed over the past 10 to 12 years working perfectly well in an arrangement between the mountain bike club, the community care group and Norske.
"One would hope it will continue that way with the new owners, but if the new owners happened to be Whakatāne District Council it would secure that park going forward and also provide them with a return on assets in a few years' time."
Clark said according to his maths, if the council bought the park for $3 million, it could harvest the forest in the next decade and earn $4m, then replant the forest and grow it as a council asset.
He said if the park were closed, more pressure would be put on the council to build a mountain bike park in Whakatāne that could cost millions, and the only return would be the recreational value.
"Because I've done this one, people come to me and say, 'can you get one going in Whakatane?' I've scoped it. It would cost millions and you would have to go through several landowners - iwi, DoC, council and private - to get the scale that we've got at Onepū park."
Clark said Onepū was frequented by serious mountain bikers, "e-bikes, old men and dogs".
Since the Rāwhiti Mountain Bike Park closed, Onepū is the closest mountain bike park to Whakatāne.
"We have about 24,000 people going there a year now and easily half of them are from Whakatāne."
Whakatāne district councillor Lesley Immink agreed the council purchasing the park warranted investigation.
"We lost Rāwhiti Bike Park over in Ōhiwa and if we were to lose this, if it went out of community hands, that means that we've got nothing.
"Even though the mountain biking community has been looking at making a bike park closer to Whakatāne, it hasn't eventuated yet.
"There's huge growth in trying to link up all of the New Zealand and Eastern Bay bike trails, so this is something that we should at least be having a look at.
"I don't know whether it is something regional council might consider in conjunction with district council. It seems like a pretty good solution to me."
The property is being marketed by Property Brokers in Whakatāne and tenders close on April 13.
The listing says the site attracted more than 17,000 visitors last year and has "potential to be further developed along the lines of the very popular Waipa Bike Park in Rotorua".
"Vendors have expressed a desire to favour purchase options that maintain the current arrangement."
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