Dozens of Tauranga City Council-owned properties will be sold in the next 10 years to reduce debt and help nurse the council back to financial health.
The council met this week to examine in detail which of its $1.09 billion worth of properties could potentially be put on the market and which would be retained.
It followed debate earlier this year in which a list of 280 properties were ranked as being potentially surplus to requirements.
August's meeting highlighted some valuable properties including the 7000sq m Zespri head office site on Maunganui Rd - formerly the old Mount Maunganui Borough Council offices.
Interviewed after this week's meeting, Mayor Stuart Crosby was unable to comment on the sale of the Zespri property or the old commercial buildings in Dive Crescent because it would breach confidentiality.
A 2.7ha block of harbourfront land on Mirrielees Rd, between the Harbour Bridge and Sanford fisheries, was the subject of a separate investigation by a group of councillors and economic development agency Priority One.
One option was to sell most of the Harbour Central business precinct, leaving a waterfront strip for public access.
Another potential source of several million dollars was the 47ha farm bought by the council 13 years ago for a landfill at Mathers Rd, Waihi. The land-use consent has expired but the discharge consents were valid to 2013.
Two properties in Marsh St totalling 7000sq m, including the 5200sq m Placemakers site, were listed in the August portfolio.
The council still owns three properties totalling 1400sq m in downtown Devonport Rd that are earmarked to become part of developer Paul Bowker's planned Strand City development.
A question mark sits beside a 48ha block below Cambridge Rd, adjacent to Richards Way and Westridge Drive.
The future of May St Reserve at Mount Maunganui will be decided by a separate process during debate on the the council's 10-year plan for 2012-22.
Mr Crosby said quite a few parcels of land were small and would likely be bought by adjoining land owners because they were the only logical purchasers.
It included some historic right-of-ways.
He said that about half a dozen significant properties would go through a public consultation process in the 10-year plan. Two were reserves and the rest fee simple land.
The council has already flagged that three huge properties in the backblocks of Oropi and upper Papamoa were not required for water supply catchment purposes.
The two properties on Seales Rd, Oropi, totalled 323ha and the No4 Rd property was 470ha.
Forty-six properties were already surplus to requirements including vacant sections in Pillans Rd bought in the aftermath of the flood.
A 9ha rural property in Belk Rd was earmarked to eventually be sold to the New Zealand Transport Agency for the future Tauriko bypass. The council's property portfolio released in August also showed that Mobil planned to terminate its lease on the 3300sq m property in Chapel St.
Leasehold properties in the Glasgow St and Greerton industrial areas would continue to be put on the market over the next few years.
A 9ha block bought by the council in Kairua Rd for a reservoir that never went ahead after a storm of protest would be sold if the council secured an alternative site off Welcome Bay Rd.
Another prime site was a 4.3ha rural-residential block at 435b Cambridge Rd because the land was no longer required for roading purposes.
Other saleable properties now deemed safe from flooding included land in Vale St and Ridge St (Otumoetai) and Dingadee St and Estuary View Rd (Welcome Bay). A further 11 Mount and Papamoa properties could be sold in Harris St, Girven Rd, Palliser Place, Gravatt Rd, Hartford Ave and Dickson Rd.
Mr Crosby said there were some properties on 15th Ave that that were taken for road widening as part of the Hairini Link project. The remainders of these properties could be sold once the transport agency had settled on its roading designation and purchased the land.
A number of 3rd Ave properties would also be sold once their stormwater issues were remedied.
By the numbers
Tauranga City Council Landholdings (excluding roads)
7353 hectares
1458 properties on 7358 hectares
2317 parcels of land
40 per cent parks and reserves
45 per cent water supply catchments
11 per cent airport, stormwater, strategic, transport
Total value: $1.09 billion