The developers of Ōpōtiki Marina and Industrial Park expect major construction work to begin within a few months.

The marina site is owned by Ōpōtiki man Chris Peterson, who has obtained the consents required. He has commissioned engineering, done initial groundwork, liaised with iwi and secured funding to cover cost of delays.  The project has received $7 million in equity funding through the Provincial Growth Fund and a loan of $1.8 million.

Mr Peterson is confident work can now proceed, creating a useful asset to the community and an exciting means of expanding the local economy.

His brother, former Ōpōtiki solicitor Ian Peterson led the Ōpōtiki News on a walkaround at the site on Saturday.

This revealed a wide flat area looking overlooking the Pakihikura River estuary, located at the centre of the two breakwaters constructed to improve the harbour entrance several years ago.

These breakwaters were built to provide a safer all-weather harbour entrance with year-round access for boats, primarily to boost the region's growing mussel aquaculture industry.

The site of the future marina and industrial park fronts a wide, shallow area of harbour that members of the public have recently discovered to be a safe swimming and paddle boarding area.

Chris Peterson said the development would add mooring areas for pleasure craft, opportunities for fishing and dive charters plus various other entrepreneurial endeavours that make use of a port facility.

He sees huge opportunities for the future industrial site to bring employment to town.

“We will have the hard stand, the travel lift and a whole industry based around boat maintenance and boat building. There is a lack of facilities throughout New Zealand, so there are opportunities for some good industry to develop in Ōpōtiki,” he said.

“It’s really exciting and satisfying to see it coming together because so much groundwork and preparation has been done,” Ian Peterson added.

He said the paperwork had been completed for about a year, and the engineering adjusted and readjusted to take every contingency into account.  

“There has been much go into it that people have not seen. Now, as far as we’re concerned, it’s just a matter of getting over the final hump.

“When you look out over the harbour and see how it has been received by the public you can see that the decision to create this marina here was the right one.”

The project has the blessing of local iwi, with a tangata whenua liaison group, Ngā Hapū o te Whakatōhea Engagement Group, established to provide ongoing feedback on the development.

Within the next few months, safe access would be created to allow trucks to carry loads from the entrance on State Highway 2 to the marina, he said.

Initially the trucks will deliver boulders for a rock revetment, whose job would be to stem erosion and protect the foreshore.

A tidal basin with a depth of mostly four metres would be excavated, creating an area to protect commercial and recreational boats. Larger craft, drawing more water, would be given deeper mooring spaces at one end of the basin

The marina site has already been raised overall by the addition of 70,000 tonnes of dredgings, dumped and spread out after being taken from the harbour construction, but additional fill to raise the ground levels will be required.

A new industrial wharf is part of the plan.

Ian Peterson said this was to have been part of Stage 2 but would now be included in the 2026 works if possible.

The idea of moving the new wharf forward, if possible, was to avoid the need to create a temporary structure which would have to be upgraded later.

A permanent entrance to the basin will be part of the initial works, plus a wide recreational access ramp down to the basin itself.

Renderings of the Ōpōtiki Marina and Industrial Park show berths for Whakatōhea Mussels boats, pleasure boats, commercial wharf, boat ramp, hard stand and large-scale travel lift.