For Brendon Johnston and Jaylene Pratt, opening a boxing gym in Henderson was never simply about creating somewhere for people to train.
Their vision for Tū Kaha Tū Roa was to create a place where boxing could support young people; building discipline and confidence, encouraging greater engagement at school and giving tamariki and rangatahi a safe place to spend time.
It was an idea Brendon had already seen work while running a gym in Tauranga, where he saw young boxers who had been struggling at school begin to change through their involvement in the sport.
“Their grades increased. They started engaging more at school and contributing more to different school activities,” Brendon says. “I thought, ‘we must be doing something right here.’”
When Brendon returned to Auckland, he and Jaylene established Tū Kaha Tū Roa, with adult memberships helping to fund free boxing programmes for tamariki and rangatahi.
However, to bring that vision to life, they needed a permanent home.
“We didn’t just want to create somewhere to train. We wanted it to be a sanctuary where kids could come and hang out before or after classes.”
Finding the right space proved difficult. Eventually, they found a former cold food storage warehouse on Waipareira Avenue in Henderson that offered the space, location and parking they needed.
“We looked inside and it looked great. We could visualise what we could do with the space,” Brendon says.
Navigating the resource consent process
There was one significant hurdle. The property was located in Auckland's Business – Light Industry Zone, where establishing an indoor boxing and Muay Thai gym required resource consent as a discretionary activity.
Brendon and Jaylene initially approached another planning provider, but Brendon says communication was difficult and weeks could pass while they waited for responses.
With their plans effectively on hold, they began looking for someone else who could help. That search brought them to CKL Resource Management Planner Sarah Robson.
“We spoke to Sarah and she gave us all the confidence we needed,” Brendon says. “It was so easy to communicate with her and get in touch with her. She just seemed really invested in what we wanted to achieve and she knew that we wanted to get it done ASAP. She was onto it. It was awesome working with her.”
CKL prepared the resource consent application, working through planning considerations including the site's zoning, traffic and parking, signage and surrounding businesses.
One consideration was parking. While the tenancy had five allocated spaces during normal business hours, agreement was secured allowing gym users to access all 25 parking spaces across the wider site during class times, when neighbouring businesses were winding down for the day.
The application progressed through Council without a request for further information.
“Having it all work out so smoothly just put us at ease. We knew we were in good hands,” Brendon says. “Sarah went over and above to show that she cared, and that means a lot.”
Opening the doors
After almost a year working towards their vision, receiving resource consent was a major milestone for Brendon and Jaylene.
“We were over the moon,” Brendon laughs. “We were so happy because we'd been waiting for so long.”
Tū Kaha Tū Roa is now operating from its new Henderson home, and after navigating the process of finding the right premises and securing the necessary approvals, Brendon has some simple advice for other small businesses or community organisations.
“If someone needed help with planning, I’d definitely tell them to get in touch with Sarah and the team at CKL. They were awesome to work with and we couldn’t be happier with how it all turned out.”
