‘Flaxmere is an opportunity, not a liability’; Hastings suburb has new New World supermarket canned

Hastings Mayor Sandra Hazlehurst pictured in 2021, standing where the new Flaxmere supermarket was to be built.

Hastings District Council and Foodstuffs North Island have pulled the plug on plans for a much-vaunted new supermarket for Flaxmere, but one community leader has vowed to keep fighting for a new New World.

A joint statement from the council and the supermarket giant said they had made the “difficult decision” to cancel a sale and purchase agreement for land in the suburb.

“This follows Foodstuffs North Island’s conclusion that building a supermarket on the site in the current economic environment isn’t sustainable,” the statement said on Thursday.

Foodstuffs spokesperson Emma Wooster said building a new supermarket can be a lengthy and unpredictable process.

“Since planning for the project started in 2021, a lot has changed with the market conditions, making it much more expensive when it comes to building and fitting out a new store.

“We’ve looked at it from every angle, but the market realities mean it’s just not feasible to go ahead with the build right now and deliver value.”

Hastings Mayor Sandra Hazlehurst said she was disappointed the new supermarket was not able to proceed, but said rapidly increasing construction costs over the past three years had made such endeavours difficult for such large projects.

“Our council is committed to creating a fit-for-purpose town centre for Flaxmere. We have commercially zoned land that gives us options to advance this.”

Hazlehurst stressed in August last year that the project would benefit the community as part of council’s housing development in Flaxmere.

“I’m very pleased that between Hastings District Council and Foodstuffs, we have been able to achieve such a positive result,” she earlier said.

The cancellation of the Flaxmere site is in stark comparison to another Foodstuffs project on the other side of Hastings, with a “state-of-the-art” New World supermarket currently under construction in Havelock North.

This project was said to represent $26 million of about $100m invested by Foodstuffs in an expansion drive across the country.

Hastings Ambassador and former Flaxmere ward councillor Henare O’Keefe told Hawke’s Bay Today that people in Flaxmere have had “high expectations” for well over a decade, and that those in council had worked hard to push for various developments in Flaxmere.

“I had personally promised our people a supermarket, so I am disappointed.”

He said he momentarily grieved when he heard the news, but “immediately jumped back” and said there needed to be a Plan B.

“No surrender. Flaxmere is an opportunity, not a liability.

“There’s an opportunity waiting for a provider or franchise with passion, energy and an authentic willingness to get behind the community that will get behind them.”

He said the suburb had been let down before when it came to infrastructure projects and had always come back stronger.

“We will come back from this, that’s for sure.”

Wooster said Foodstuffs was committed to delivering “the best retail experience possible” and providing the “highest-quality products” from its existing New World Flaxmere branch.

“Every new store build is a completely separate project, so no other builds that we have planned in Hawkes Bay are affected by making this difficult decision.”