Te Atiawa opens high-end development on former colonial parade ground

Te Atiawa has opened a high-end townhouse development on an inner-city site in New Plymouth where colonial troops once assembled for inspection.

Pukekura / The Parade features 36 two-storied two and three-bedroom homes, located just 500m from the CBD.

Taonga pūoro and karakia ring out at first light as the multimillion dollar project is unveiled.

Iwi members, construction workers and new homeowners alike then file through each home, touching the walls and fittings.

Te Kotahitanga o Te Atiawa chair, Liana Poutu, explained the blessing had two functions - firstly to clear the homes for what was to come.

"Then the second part is when people walk through houses they're placing their energy, their mauri, if you like, their good intentions into those houses.

"So, we're filling the houses with our aroha, we're filling the houses with all of those good intentions and thoughts, so that the families that live in those houses are surrounded by that love, those good intentions."

Poutu said the project's name was an acknowledgement of the site's dual history and shared future.

"Pukekura historically was a gully system of a whole lot of waterways and so that was used by our people historically for food gathering and resources and then this particular site where this development is was an old parade ground for the colonial troops that used to be based on Pukaka Marsland Hill."

Te Atiawa general manager economic development, Joshua Hitchcock, explained the freehold homes cost up to $900,000.

"We have pitched it at the upper end of the market here in town and done that deliberately so. It's such a prime site, it's a wonderful location, with the amenities you can't beat it.

"Pukekura Park is a five minute walk away. You've got supermarkets and cafes all within walking distance, so in terms of the opportunity and the location of the site we wanted to provide that more premium offering."

Hitchcock said profits from developments such as the Parade - built on the former New Plymouth Technical School site - would be pumped into projects with a more social focus.

"Then there we have those housing developments which are specifically designed as modern day papakainga for our whanau where we are developing housing for Te Atiawa by Te Atiawa and there are a number of those projects underway.

"Just two months ago we opened a five-unit kaumatua development next to the hospital here in town and we're really working with the Ministry of Social Development to put a number of our kaumatua who are on the housing register into those whare."

Jen Smart had bought one of the Parade townhouses.

"I'm just overwhelmed really by how special it is and the history behind it because both my husband and I have history on this bit of land.

"My husband went to Central School and my ancestors arrived in Ngāmotu and one of them actually was in the regiment here, so would've marched on this bit of land."

Another owner, Paul Barrett, was taken aback by the ceremony.

"Well it was very spiritual I wasn't really aware and ready for that. It was kind of to me a house and a home, but then I didn't know what it meant to the developers how passionate they are all about it.

"And it's not just smash it up and get some money out of here. It's really a project of love."

Livingstone Homes apprentice, Tama-James Tuffley, who had Te Atiawa whakapapa, had benefited from the project's 15 percent Māori procurement target.

"It's been mean just a great opportunity to learn a lot of things. We've got 36 townhouses to build so there's a lot of things to learn from all of that.

"And it means a lot to work on I guess like my own buildings, I could say, like for my people, I guess."

Te Atiawa expects to open 18 inner-city apartments on Weymouth Street later this year featuring six units designed for kaumatua living downstairs and 12 apartments available via an affordable rental programme.

A 19 townhouse development in Tukapa Street in Westown was due to be completed in 2027 featuring a mix of affordable rentals and shared ownership options.

Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.