Western Bay of Plenty economic development agency, Priority One, has laid off business development manager Richard Kinzett.

Richard Kinzett in May this year at the site of the Harbour Central Marine Precinct.

Richard's redundancy, which took effect Tuesday, follows a review of the future business streams and core projects for 2011 and beyond, says organisation chief executive Andrew Coker.

He says as a result of this review it has been necessary to restructure the current team resource to ensure the ongoing resourcing of the organisation reflects the requirements of the business.

As business development manager, Richard was responsible for the Harbour Central Marine Precinct project.

'Harbour Central was a major project, huge. But it's coming to fruition,” says Andrew.

'It's pretty much come to a close now, and it's left a bit of a gap for us.

'We are coming to the closing stages of that project from a Priority One perspective.

'We are almost through the last consents and there is an investor-developer that is working with council; because at the end of the day it is council owned land. And so it will start to progress from early next year.

'I ran the project before Richard joined us, so essentially I will be running it through to the closing stages.”

It is the first time Priority One has had a redundancy, says Andrew.

'We've adjusted the project workload that's all. We are project based and that's kind of what happens.”

It was not unexpected, says Andrew, who says, 'Like any business we've got to watch the top line and the bottom line, particularly while the economy's still tight.

'The team at Priority One acknowledges the contribution Richard has made to the business and wishes him well with his future.”

The Harbour Central project is to establish a marine business park on Mirrielees Road, Sulphur Point, in a partnership between Tauranga City Council, the Tauranga Marine Industry Association and Priority One.

Up to 520 new jobs are expected to be created and around $100 million per annum pumped into the economy as a result of this development.