One of the staunchest advocates of the Mount Maunganui business district has passed away.

It's understood Peter Melgren, the much admired and respected Mount Mainstreet manager, died of a heart attack early this morning.

Mount Mainstreet manager Peter Melgren has passed away.

He recently described the Mount as having the 'very best boutique shopping in all New Zealand and a very affluent market”.

Peter took over the role of Mount Mainstreet from Tauranga City Councillor Leanne Brown, in the middle of 2014. Before that he spent three months working as a media sales consultant.

Recently he told Sun Media that while he made much more money at his previous job, his heart was in the future of the business precinct. 'This is my passion,” he said.

'I met him only yesterday for an hour at a business meeting,” says Trevor Willett, co-owner of the Mount Mellick Irish pub.

'He struck me as a very successful and a very sincere businessman.”

And one with an altruistic streak. Peter told SunLive about his encounter with a beggar in Main Street.

'I got some money out of my wallet and took him down to Burger King and opened him an account. He needed food to get through the next three. He went away quite happy.”

The beggar later left a message at Burger King thanking Peter.

Mount resident and personality Rosalie Crawford says Peter was 'positive, outgoing and passionate about both Mount Maunganui and Tauranga. And extremely well organised”.

His loss will be felt greatly she says.

Mayor Stuart Crosby is passing on his condolences to Peter's family after hearing of his death this morning.

'I've known Peter a real long time,” says Stuart. 'We were high school mates. We used to knock around together at Te Puke High School play hockey together and knock around as a bunch of teenagers, Peter and I and others. I've known him a long time.”

Peter was previously a long standing city council employee.

When Stuart arrived at council in 1989, Peter was working as the support person for the mayor of the day and also doing other civic events.

'Then he moved into the event space working out of Baycourt and helped deliver hundreds of events over a long period of time.

'He did a few other little jobs before moving on to Mount Mainstreet. He was doing a wonderful job there.

'A lot of people will know Peter both from the events and he was heavily involved in hockey and other things.”