Alexandra and Clyde bowling clubs have been gifted two new vans by retirement village Aurum on Clutha.

Aurum on Clutha sales manager Warren Galletly said originally the idea was to build a bowling club at the village itself as part of the development. 

“We realised we had two local awesome facilities that were a bit under utilised.”

The retirement village team recognised that many residents would want to bowl year-round so came up with the idea of gifting the vans to the two well established indoor and outdoor bowling facilities – Alexandra and Clyde.

Aurum on Clutha Director and ex-New Zealand representative bowler Pat Houlahan said the courtesy vans would build up club numbers for both clubs rather than taking them away.

Alexandra Bowling Club president John Lochhead said he was dumbfounded that the gift had come to fruition. 

“The original offer from the Aurum village was a brilliant offer . . . we’ve now got a manager from Epsom Bowling club to manage our club and these vans are going to top off the benefit to our club by carting our various teams away to competitions."

He said the van would also be made available to schools or other groups that wanted to hire it out.

One of the two vans gifted by the Aurum on Clutha development to Alexandra Bowling club. PHOTO: Vicki McLean

Warren said although nothing was very visible at the moment, progress on the the retirement village development was ticking along. 

“The plan is for civil works including roading and infrastructure to start in May.

“Tenders and engineering work is being done now so we will be ready to turn dirt and kick things off soon.”

Stage one of the project involves building 24 villas close to what will be the main entrance to the village, off Muttontown Rd.

The site office is also being renovated at the moment.

Sales manager Warren Galletly, on-site with a plan of the village, said he has already received 40 expressions of interest in the villas. PHOTO: Anna Robb

“The bulk of this interest is from locals within this valley. I’ve had a handful from Dunedin and the lakes district too,” Warren said.

October this year is the target date for completing the first villa. 

Warren said the timing aligns with work on the sewerage scheme that is due to be completed in September. 

The village will be located between State Highway 8 and Muttontown Rd, near Clyde, and covers 7.8 hectares.  

It consists of 122 villas ranging in sizes and a 60-bed aged-care facility.

Stage two, three and four of the development include more villas, a gym, lounge facility, hospital, dementia unit and palliative care as well as rest home care. 

HPA Group, which specialises in the development of retirement villages, will project manage the staged development.

They have previously worked on Dunstan Hospital and Golden View Lifestyle Village in Cromwell.

Warren said although HPA Group was Auckland based there would be lots of opportunities for local tradespeople to work and be involved in the project.