Kennedy Park Resort

An update on Kennedy Park Resort 

Kennedy Park Resort is a well-known holiday accommodation provider and has good potential to be a commercial business. External parties have approached us, interested in taking up a long-term lease of Kennedy Park Resort. This would mean Council would lease the land that Kennedy Park sits on to an external party for 20 to 30 years. They would either purchase or lease Kennedy Park Resort’s assets and manage the business. Napier City Council would remain as the owner of the land. The external provider would rent the land from us for the term of the lease, meaning income for ratepayers. 

When the lease expires, the Council at that time may choose to re-negotiate a new lease or take back the ownership and/or management of Kennedy Park Resort. We are about to start due diligence on this proposal. If we have a suitable lease arrangement to go ahead with, we will consult the community before a decision is made. Any consultation would likely take place in 2026.

If we don’t have a suitable lease agreement to consult on, we could continue running the facility ourselves and loan-fund any losses until it starts covering its costs. We would need to develop new ways of increasing its income to make it a successful commercial activity.

A third option we could consider is operating Kennedy Park in partnership with an external provider. The provider would contribute finances for improvements to Kennedy Park, in return for a share of the income. We would continue to own Kennedy Park’s assets and the land.   

While we work through the due diligence process on our options, we will focus on improving the financial performance of the facility. 

Important note: We are not considering selling the land that Kennedy Park Resort sits on.