Plans to expand and redevelop Bethlehem Town Centre will see the town's popular market moved to a new venue.

Expansion plans are expected to be revealed over the next two or three months, meaning the community market – run by the Lions Club – needs to be rehoused.

The current Bethlehem market site. Picture: Google Streetview.

Though the last market will be held on March 1, market organiser Alf Holst insists they do not yet have an alternative site.

Town centre manager Andrew Wadsworth says: 'We had to be proactive and give the Lions a heads up about possibly moving on, rather than leaving it to the last minute.

'We've been quite open with them with regards to potential downsizing of the market and utilising other areas in the centre, but they have made the decision to make a clean break because they want to keep it at the same size.

'Unfortunately, we won't be able to accommodate that with the plans we have in place.

'I don't want to tap them on the shoulder and say ‘it's all approved and we need you to move next week.' I don't think that's fair.”

According to Andrew, the ‘guys in Auckland' are currently working through the details of the redevelopment proposal in preparation for consent applications.

'We are hoping in the next month or two to get everything ticked off and to openly share it with the public,” he explains.

'It's a redevelopment. I'm not going to add to the speculation because the plans aren't finalised yet, and they are a bit of a moving beast and subject to change. Until they are locked and loaded, I'm not going to discuss what will happen.”

The Lions Club wish list is for an area of reasonably flat land with room for 120-150 stalls.

The Bethlehem Town Centre carpark, where the market is currently held is paved, drained and has been rent free for the Lions as part of the town's donation to the community.

'We are a bit spoilt with the one we have at the moment,” says Alf. 'Most other markets that are on private land or public land pay something towards the use of the land.

'That can be a plus and a minus. At the farmers' market on Fourth Avenue they pay the school, so the school benefits from it and so do the stall holders.

'We are inquiring around, and obviously what we need is somewhere with parking for a good number of stalls and parking for the customers.

'Bethlehem Town Centre was ideal, but we now need to look at something like Papamoa has – perhaps a council reserve.

'We would still like it to be associated with Bethlehem, because that's the name of our club. If we can't find anything adjacent to Bethlehem we would then look further afield.”

A lot of people are still away on holiday, says Alf, which means they cannot yet talk to decision makers about potential spaces.

Bethlehem Town Centre is owned by Canada's Public Sector Pension Investment Board, and managed by AMP Capital Investors.

The town centre was part of a $1 billion-plus sale of 18 of AMP's New Zealand properties to the fund in July 2014.