Warren & Mahoney, architects of the Supreme Court Building in Wellington, have been appointed by Zespri to design its new headquarters on Maunganui Road.

'While building activity hasn't started on the Zespri site yet, there's been plenty of work underway to plan how we'll build a better Zespri workplace and a great park environment for us all to enjoy,” David Hazlehurst, Zespri's chief financial officer says in a letter to neighbours of the site.

The new Zespri headquarters will be erected on Maunganui Road.

The architects, who also designed, among other projects, the Whangaparaoa Library and Civic Development and the Victoria Park Tunnel in Auckland, have been given Zespri's brief 'to build a global headquarters which also functions as a hub for the NZ kiwifruit industry and connects us with both our local community and global markets”.

The letter to local residents follows a meeting late last year attended by neighbours at which Zespri outlined its plans for the site which it has purchased from the Tauranga City Council.

'It was a very positive meeting and we got valuable feedback from neighbours, which will be useful to the design process.”

David says, as expected given the lack of parking at the current site, provision of parking for the new building was among the issues neighbours raised.

Zespri has been leasing its current office building and surrounding land from the council. The new head office will be located at the southern end of the site, while parkland will be developed adjoining the new building.

'It's exciting to be building a permanent office for Zespri here in the Mount where we've been based for the past 20 years.

'We're committed to our local community and part of this is redeveloping the park space for the public to continue to use and enjoy.”

David says he's looking forward to seeing what's currently an under-utilised greenspace re-developed into an attractive park and Zespri will work with Tauranga City Council to create a space that meets the needs of the community.

Neighbours will continue to be kept informed as building work gets underway, and a notice board will be set up on the site to keep the community informed.

The current plans are for civil works, including drainage, to begin by September/ October of this year with the final building concepts confirmed by the end of 2016.

Construction should begin in April or May 2017 and be complete by mid to late 2018 with the park due to be complete in late 2018.