Building surge in Bay with six major projects worth more than $1m each

Workshops and office, $1.1 million. Photo / George Novak

Tauranga City Council approved more than $37 million worth of building consents last month - with six major projects worth more than $1 million each signed off across the city.

Annie Hill, of Priority One, said it was "encouraging" to see the figures getting closer to the 2006 and 2007 peak.

Annie Hill, of Priority One, said consents for all building, including residential renovations, totalled $41.5 million. Photo / Priority One

Consents hit a peak of $86m in June 2006.

The value of residential and commercial building consents in April was up by more than $6m on the same time last year with the largest commercial consent being valued at $8.7 million for a new bulk storage warehouse. The warehouse is being built by Auckland Property for Industry, and local family-owned trucking company RMD Transport has signed a 12-year lease for the building.

Simon Woodhams, joint general manager of Property for Industry, said construction had already started on the 10,000m2 warehouse at 124 Hewletts Rd.

It was being built on surplus land at the back of the site and construction was due to be completed by the start of October, he said.

Scott Sherson, a director of RMD Transport, said the Hewletts Rd site was a good location to secure before land for commercial development in Mount Maunganui ran out.

"It's one of the few sites left at the Mount. We've gone ahead with it because soon you won't be able to get a big building in the Mount and everyone is going out to Tauriko."

Three of the six major consents issued last month were for buildings in the growing Tauriko business area.

A retaining wall and carpark for a shopping centre in the area was valued at $1 million and would go in at 2 Taurikura Drive.

Just a little further along the road at 98 Taurikura Drive, a consent was issued for a $1.1 million project to build seven workshops and an office.

The biggest Tauriko consent approved in April was for a warehouse with a shop, offices and a mezzanine floor for Farmlands at 1 Whiore Ave, valued at $1.4 million.

Commercial-building consents reached nearly $14 million in April, a $1.1 million increase on the same time last year.

Consents for new residential builds totalled more than $23 million, a $4.9 million jump on last year.

Rachel Emerson, commercial manager of Tauriko management company Element IMF, said 15 buildings were under construction at the estate, the most there had been.

Low interest rates were one aspect of the current climate which was encouraging business owners to become their own landlords because the mortgage was as cheap as paying rent.