Plans are underway to create a Sports Centre of Excellence at the former Cosmopolitan Club building at Blake Park in Mount Maunganui.

Council controlled organisation, Bay Venues Ltd, is seeking council approval to allow five months to complete a feasibility study for the redevelopment of the club, reporting back to council in December.

Bay Venues Ltd CEO Gary Dawson outside the Cosmopolitan Club building that could be transformed into a Sports Centre of Excellence.

At this stage Bay Venues Ltd is gathering conceptual plans on which some costings will be based, to see if the project has potential or not, says CEO Gary Dawson.

'It's very early days at the moment,” says Gary.

'It's a building that's been sitting empty for a couple of years. It's at Blake Park where there is a whole sport's precinct already, right up to the tennis and netball courts.

'There are already a lot of sports that come to Tauranga for training camps, so we believe there is a potential market for us to tap into.

'But we want to make sure that we get the plans and do a good business case to see if it stacks up or not. It seems, for a combination of reasons, a worthwhile project to at least have an early look at, and to see whether it's feasible or not.”

The next step for Bay Venues will be gauging public interest in the idea. In 2013 TCC called for ideas on what to do with the former building, with a number of sports clubs and organisations expressing an interest.

'Council has passed those onto us, I guess motivating us to have a closer look at it and see if it is feasible,” says Gary.

'Once we have got the conceptual plans we can start talking in earnest to different sporting organisations.

'We need time to talk to different sports, who may be interested in using the facility, get a business plan together, get approvals.

'We have outlined a process to council and it will take about five months to get the final support for it.”

The former Cosmopolitan Club building has been vacant since the council bought it in 2009 in an arrangement clearing the way for the nearby Mount Greens project. The Council called for proposals for the building last year, but nothing viable came from it.

The building is ideally situated for a sporting related venture, being just across the road from the hockey turfs, and the world class cricket nets at the Bay Oval, along with the Blake Park playing fields.

The request for the five months will be put to the city council at the meeting next Wednesday, July 23.

TCC purchased two properties, 50 Miro Street, which has a house on it, and 54 Miro Street - the 6308m2 Cosmopolitan Club site with 99 car parks and 2685m2 of floor space.

The purchase price was $6.3 million and rating value for the two properties is $5.976m. Rates are $30,540, and the council rents out the house.

The main building was built in a number of stages. The older part has a seismic rating of 22 per cent of the New Building Standard. The newer part is 76 per cent. A detailed engineering report with cost estimated for improvements is to be ready by the end of July 2014.