Local Trusts support multi-sport complex – Club Palmerston
Feb 25, 2006
TWO trust donations totalling $500,000 have injected welcome capital into Palmerston North's $1.9 million multisport complex which is on schedule for a September finish.
The Club Palmerston project - a joint venture between Squash Palmerston North, the Palmerston North Bowling Club and the Cosmopolitan Club - has received a $250,000 donation from Central Energy Trust, as well as a $150,000 interest free loan, and $100,000 from Unison Trust for squash court costs.
Chairman Grant Smith said the grants were "significant" and had helped lift financial pressure associated with building a multisport complex of "such a nature" in a CBD location.
"The complex will carry a small debt, but it's small in relationship to the assets and the building we're putting up," he said.
Work on the Linton St site began in January with the contractors' first target the completion of three extra squash courts before the world junior championships in July.
Twenty-four countries, including Pakistan, Egypt, England and Australia, have entered the two-week event. Club Palmerston's eight-court complex will be New Zealand's biggest squash centre.
The project's second phase encompasses Cosmopolitan Club dining, lounge and bar facilities, as well as snooker, pool and darts areas. The North Island Darts championships are scheduled for late May. The complex's social and function rooms will be shared by members of all three clubs.
A decision has yet to be made on whether one of the bowling club's three adjoining greens will become an indoor facility.