Hundreds of sports fans will soon be enjoying new facilities at the freshly constructed Greytown Pavilion at Soldiers Memorial Park, which will cater for growth in the district’s sports community each year.

The new facility is scheduled for completion in November this year following demolition of the existing structure this month (October), which no longer works well as a sports club venue, due to its size and inability to accommodate different genders in changing room facilities.

“I helped build the pavilion and I’m passionate about it but it’s no longer fit for purpose and we regretfully need to say goodbye to it. We’re hoping to salvage the clock tower to put on the new building to keep a connection with the past,” says John Gray, Life Member and Chair of the Cricket Club Management Committee.  

The project went to an open tender and was won by Presidential Homes, which has been constructing the new pavilion in three modules off site.

These three modules will be transported to the site where they will be connected to services and to each other. This offsite method of construction significantly reduces the disruption that a more traditional onsite build would require, reducing the build from months to a matter of weeks.

Image above show the render of the new Greytown Pavilion

“The sports clubs that use the current facility for swimming, cricket and football, along with Greytown Sport & Leisure have been fantastic to work with and engaged with the project in terms of design, some fundraising and coordination of contractors for completion works such as building the deck and veranda,” says James O’Connor, Manager Community Operations for SWDC.

The new pavilion will be a larger building with more changing rooms, shower facilities, a large clubroom area, bar, kitchen facilities, storage rooms for clubs and an outdoor decking area. The current Pavilion will be demolished and the clock tower will be salvaged to be reused on the new building. Its key purpose is for use by sports clubs but the Pavilion also has wider use for community events and as a conference venue.

Funding for the majority of the Pavilion was factored into South Wairarapa District Council’s current Long-Term Plan. However, Greytown Sports and Leisure Society, along with local clubs, will continue to fundraise for external components of the project, such as decking, veranda and furnishings.