A major new shopping centre with a hotel, apartments and vast carparking is planned for a prominent 1.4ha Newmarket, Auckland, site.
Fiona Shilton, The Warehouse property general manager, said that business owned the big site at 66-80 Broadway where it operates from, opposite the cinema complex.
Other businesses also operating from there include The Baby Factory but the site beside the railway line has extensive parking around buildings so has redevelopment potential.
Now, The Warehouse wants to sell and is looking for a development partner to build a new project which it will lease.
Images show a mall-style centre tentatively named Arcadia and plans are for a 40-room hotel, nearly a hectare of office floorspace, a 17,925sq m 160-unit apartment block and 720 carparks.
In total, a project of 47,914sq m or 4.7ha of floorspace is being planned.
The site also has the address 11-15 Railway St. The Warehouse, Warehouse Stationery and Noel Leeming have committed to nearly 8000sq m of space in any new development.
Six titles are being sold and Auckland Council has granted consent for a mixed-use development.
Mark Knoff-Thomas, Newmarket Business Association chief executive, welcomed the plans.
"We've been expecting that site to be developed for a number of years. As part of Newmarket's intensification, the unitary plan has laid out strong signals about more growth. This site lends itself very well to more development. Newmarket is a major transport hub. We're the surrogate CBD in some ways and we would embrace more development.
"A hotel would be marvellous because we've been lacking in accommodation. Many big corporates are in Carlton Gore Rd so I would imagine there's quite strong demand for out-of-town travellers to have more accommodation," he said.
Scentre Group also planned to develop its Westfield Newmarket and the adjoining site at 309 Broadway site and that was yet another exciting proposition, he said.