Sport Northland has today announced a significant redevelopment of one its key facilities, Kensington Fitness. Situated at Kensington Park in Whangarei, the centre is part of the McKay Stadium facility, developed in the 1980s and under the ownership of Sport Northland since 1991.

While the wider McKay Stadium complex has undergone two major redevelopments back in 1999 and 2002, the fitness centre itself is largely untouched since it was opened in 1986.

Sport Northland, a charitable trust, operates Kensington Fitness as its commercial operation with any profit reinvested into its community activities and initiatives aimed at ‘Enriching lives through play, active recreation and sport’ – a role that Kensington Fitness itself plays a big part in achieving.

The redevelopment will see a relocation and complete upgrade of the changing rooms/bathrooms and sauna, a relocation and upgrade of the RPM indoor cycling space into a new cycle studio on the ground floor, the introduction of a new functional fitness studio on the ground floor and a revamped fitness floor with a vastly increased area on the upper level, confirming the centre as the biggest of its type in the north. The refurbishment will also include a new roof and new air conditioning systems.

“Kensington Fitness is such a key facility for us, and for Whangarei, and the time is now right to ensure that we give it a 35^th birthday upgrade. This will provide an even more attractive space for people to get active in, with more space and more fitness options,” says Sport Northland Chief Executive Brent Eastwood.

“Over the years the Sport Northland board has put in significant planning and prudent financial foresight to ensure that when the time is right, we are able to invest into the future of a facility that was started with the community in mind – and that time is now here”.

Local project management teams and contractors will be used for the refurbishment including Griffiths and Associates, NPM Construction, Chilltech and Apex Roofing.

“One of the key focuses in the redevelopment was our commitment to Northland and Northland businesses given what we have all been through over the last 12 months, and consequently we are very proud of the fact that Northland firms and their people will also benefit from what we are doing” says Eastwood.

The project will be completed in a staged approach over the next 10 months to enable Kensington Fitness to stay operational with minimal disruption to members and users.

Kensington Fitness’s large member base, the Sport Northland team and the wider community are very excited about the project and are looking forward to the re-launch of Kensington Fitness, which will further cement the facility as the largest, most diverse and up-to-date fitness centre in Te Tai Tokerau.