Whitianga Waterways on the Coromandel Peninsula is New Zealand’s largest canal housing project. This exciting twenty-stage development is expected to be completed within the next 20 years. The finished Whitianga Waterways development will have approximately 1,500 lots, including 700 canal frontage lots and 100 airfield lots, and it will incorporate waterfront retail and apartments, tourist accommodation, retirement, and medical facilities. It will also provide for a range of service industries including a commercial “Gateway Zone”.
The project to date has involved the dredging of a 1.5-kilometre-long access channel in Whitianga Harbour; the development of six stages of canals and sections; the Airpark Subdivision; the State Highway 25 Bypass; the construction of Joan Gaskell Drive; the establishment of commercial zoned land on Joan Gaskell Drive; and the construction of a PlaceMakers retail development.
Some of the exciting future projects will include a large-format retail store and a sports ground complex to be developed for Thames-Coromandel District Council.
Whitianga Waterways is a joint venture between Hopper Developments Ltd and the original landowners. Planning began in the mid-1990s, and all consents necessary to commence work were granted by 2001 (although an Act of Parliament was required in the final stages to allow the project to go ahead).
Airey is privileged to have been involved as the project engineer from the inception of this development.
