Kaitāia’s main drag in need of facelift but who pays?

• Author: David Fisher
• Published date: 25 May 2023
• Publication title: Northland Age, The

It’s a proposal that has won support around the council table, with frustration over out-of-town landlords and the state of their buildings

One landlord contacted by the Northland Age has now pledged to do whatever the Kaitāia Business Association needs to bring the building up to scratch.

Another building — described as an eyesore — has been traced to an Auckland company director whose companies specialise in property construction, maintenance and renovation.

Kaitāia-based Far North councillor Felicity Foy said it had been a “real struggle” getting some private landlords to embrace the $7 million town centre revitalisation project.

A submission was going to the council to create a bylaw that would set a minimum standard for commercial main street buildings in the Far North District Council territory.

“That puts it back onto private landlords that they do have to maintain their buildings,” Foy said. There was a difficulty around how such a bylaw could be enforced and legal precedent would need to be researched.

“I personally would like to see a town centre bylaw related to the upkeep on main street facades.”

Kaitāia Business Association president Andrea Panther said the organisation had submitted a proposal to the council with the support of the Kaikohe Business Association.

Panther said some of the buildings were in such disrepair that the business association used some of its limited funds “to cover up the areas that were the worst”.

Stand-out buildings identified by the business association that they believed needed maintenance included the building that housed the Kaitāia Food Market dairy and Sushi Avenue.

The shops were tenants in a building owned by a company called 2 PP Limited, owned by Rupesh Parikh and Sujalkumar Patel of Flatbush, Auckland, according to Land Information New Zealand and Companies Office records.

Panther supplied records showing funds for the revitalisation project had been used to paint the upstairs shop front to cover yellow mould.

The Age contacted Parikh, who said $40,000 had been spent on getting the roof replaced at a time when money was “tight”.

“We are doing this gradually,” he said. Other work included washing the building and he had been told by his business partner painting had been done.

Parikh asked that the business association make contact. “I will make sure the building is up to standard. We do want to make changes.”

Another stand-out...