Elim Christian Centre has purchased 8.99 hectares of land in 16 Yates Road, Pukekohe, to expand and provide facilities for the existing congregation (Elim Franklin) and land that has the capacity to accommodate a large school campus.
The property is Future Urban on the edge of Pukekohe township with easy access to Pukekohe train station and town centre.
Planning is also underway to finish Elim Christian College, Junior Campus on Golflands Drive by early 2018, followed by a rebuild of the Botany campus at Botany Road.
The grass sports field at the Golflands campus will be converted into an artificial surface for year round use.
Once completed, the Golflands campus will accommodate years 0-8 as a full primary school and years 7-10 in a middle school.
Years 11 to 13 will be accommodated in the newly-renovated Botany campus with an open tertiary-type environment. The work is due to start mid 2018. The new facilities for the school is estimated to cost approximately $17m.
The surplus buildings of the college in Botany Road will be removed from that site, and the church auditorium will be enlarged, growing its capacity from 900 to 1400.
Additional parking and improved early childhood facilities are also in the plan, in order to accommodate the massive growth the east congregation has experienced in recent years.
Elim Christian Centre Auckland operates five church congregations in different locations, a multi-site school campus, an online Bible college, a kindergarten and daycare.
Over recent years, the church has experienced massive growth in its congregations, with over 4000 attending Sunday services across the city and extensive waiting lists to enrol in Elim Christian College, which has a current roll of 1000 students.
At the end of 2016, after three years of seeking a roll increase for its Golflands and Botany school campuses, the Elim board was advised by the Ministry of Education that the Howick and Pakuranga area was not experiencing the growth that other suburbs were.
The Ministry of Education felt there is no room for the school to grow the current school roll. However they did advise that they would support Elim Christian Centre’s plans to establish colleges in the growth areas of Auckland.
The church’s vision has been to multiply the church-school site model present at the east location to its other church locations, as the model where facilities are available for the church on weekends and school during weekdays is seen as good stewardship of resources.
Earlier this year, land in Botany previously owned by the church was sold by the church board to provide finance for new and upcoming developments.
The board of Hebron Christian College in Mount Albert has also entered into a Memorandum of Understanding with the Elim proprietors board to become a full Elim Integrated school from the beginning of 2017. This will become Elim Christian College – Mount Albert campus.
The plan is to have one principal and one board of trustees over the three campuses (Botany, Mount Albert and Pukekohe) and then heads of each campus.
