Meadowbank Community Centre Upgrade

The vision is for a high-quality, fit-for-purpose facility to better serve the surrounding communities long into the future. The space will be about twice the size of the current centre, and it will be a place to gather, learn and enjoy a wider range of services and programmes.

The Ōrākei Local Board has responded to calls from locals for improvements to community facilities. In July 2018, it gave the go-ahead to revitalise the Meadowbank Community Centre, using a process called service property optimisation.

As the council-controlled organisation (CCO) that provides specialist property services and advice for Auckland Council, Eke Panuku works closely with local boards around the region on opportunities like this one.

Properties that currently provide a community service can be sold for development, with a requirement that significant improvements to those local community facilities or services is included. These improvements might otherwise not be feasible or might take a significantly longer time to deliver.

This means the community gets better facilities and services at no cost to ratepayers. An additional benefit of this process is that more high-quality homes can be built in the right places, helping address Auckland's housing shortage.

For this project, it means the new and improved community centre will be funded from the sale of 4 Victoria Avenue in Remuera and the airspace above the new development on the site of the current community centre. The new community centre will be on the ground floor and apartments will be on top.

Eke Panuku is leading work on the upgrade of the Meadowbank Community Centre, working closely with the Ōrākei Local Board and Auckland Council.

The final internal fit-out design has been approved by the Ōrākei Local Board and can be found here.