Otangarei Papakainga Ltd

The Otangarei Papakainga Project (OPL) came about from a desire of local social services support trust Te Hau Awhiowhio o Otangarei to provide full wrap around services to their community. The trust provides health care services including GP care and counseling. The Trust also provides ongoing support for the community with youth programs, budgeting and employment advice. 

To complete the suite of services the Trust had the desire to provide transitional housing for those in need. While housing can be provided fairly simply, the trust opted to engage in a traditional Maori style of housing utilizing the Papakainga philosophies of communal living to aid in the support network available to the community. 

The Trust engaged with Te Puni Kokiri (TPK) to request funding but was met with some hurdles to overcome around capital funding of the project. While the Trust had some funds available and amount was to be provided by TPK the shortfall of the funding proved difficult. This was overcome by capitilising the some of the operating budget and converting a communal area to another housing unit.

The final product resulted in a 6-unit development, split of two 500 square metre sections. The Trust engaged with Scope from an early stage who helped provide advice on maximizing the potential of the site and how capitilising on operations budgets could help secure the final capital received from government. Griffiths advised on a design and build option with locally trusted builder Homeworld, in order to minimize design and variation risk during the build. Local planners Reyburn & Bryan were engaged to advise on resource consent requirements.

This style of housing development is new to councils and goes against the classical requirements set out within the resource management act and council planning laws. Scope identified this risk early on and engagement with the council proved essential to coming to agreement on this communal style living. While the development sought to align with as many planning requirements as possible (setbacks etc.) The key issue was around the number and proximity of units with 6 units over two titles. Early hui with the council and the trust allowed for understanding to be gained by the council on the philosophy of papakainga living and a desire for the Trust to return to the traditional way of living. The council was accepting of the design and following extensive consultation the development was approved.

The team was assembled to undertake the project consisting of Scope as the Engineer to The Contract and Project Manager, with Homeworld as the design and build supplier. This streamlined the process and allowed clear lines of communication and responsibility. The project employed around 15 people at its peak. 

Scope nominated Kelly Haora as the Project Manager for the project. Kelly comes of a design and build background and works collaboratively with Clients, stakeholders, designers and builders. This project required those sets of skills and Kelly undertook the planning design and build stages diligently. 

The project had a key deadline to be opened by Ministers of Government on Waitangi Day. With this in mind the project needed to be expedited and key programme risks were identified early on around council resource and building consents as well as stakeholder engagement and building timeframes. Having identified these Kelly sought to target these risks early and apply pressure to meet deadlines. Early engagement with council as essential and played a pivotal role in getting buy in and swift processing from the council resource and building consent teams. Having experience with larger projects Kelly is across NZS3910 and its multitude of applications. The builder preferred a standard Registered Master Builders Association Residential Building Contract. Kelly reviewed the document and identified key risks within the contract that were negotiated and priced in with the builder. This provided reduced risk profile for the Client. Having limited public funding meant the Client has very little risk appetite. Following negotiations with the Client and Builder Kelly was able to agree and have signed a build contract for close to a million dollars.

Throughout the project Kelly provided excellent advice to the Client around contractor claims, variations and programme. Kelly undertook weekly inspections reviewing site items such as health and safety, progress and quality. It was through these processes that Kelly gained an excellent working relation with the Client and trust with the builder.

Due to the contract negotiations the project incurred very little variation work and Kelly was able to hand back a significant proportion of the contingency to the Client for further projects and community services. 

Having identified key programme risks Kelly went about diligently monitoring and executing the programme with the Builder and had the Client engaged at key moment to overcome Client interaction risks with the builder.  Through this process Kelly and the team were able to deliver the project on the 31st of January 2020 ahead of the requested handover for Waitangi Day 2020.