Two 'prime' sites for sale at new Hastings industrial hub

22 Irongate full boundary outlines. The sites for sale are the first two from the left. Photo / Supplied

Major horticultural interest is expected for two sites of land for sale in Irongate, touted as Hastings' newest industrial business park.

Colliers International broker Danny Blair says the two sites have areas of 5710sq m and 5500sq m and are next to a substantial site which recently changed hands in the Hawke's Bay region's largest industrial land transaction this year.

"Colliers International recently brokered the sale of the largest site to a well-known Hawke's Bay pip fruit company.

"The 6.3ha landholding is in the process of being turned into a modern packhouse and 4000sq m cool store to the tune of an estimated $30 million"

Both sites on sale have excellent roadfront profile, large lot sizes, services to the boundary and titles in place, he said.

"Lot 3 has an extra 210 sq m of space, allowing for a slightly larger built footprint."

The two sites are zoned general industrial, allowing for a wide variety of uses including manufacturing, distribution and food processing, he said.

"Given the strength of the Hawke's Bay horticulture sector, there is likely to be good interest from this sector.

"We are expecting to see a lot of interest for the land, which will be attractive to industries that can service existing and upcoming larger occupiers in the region."

He added the high-performing horticulture sector was also driving strong demand
for industrial land as businesses sought more space.

"A developer could purchase a site to build a new industrial facility, either as a design build for a specific tenant, or as a spec build without a tenant in place.

"The strong demand for industrial facilities means a modern, high-quality spec build is likely to attract strong tenant interest.

"An owner occupier could choose to purchase a site for a new facility. With demand pushing up industrial rents, this would allow an owner-occupier to offset rental costs with capital gains from the underlying land."

Industrial broker Rob Nankervis added that Irongate was ideally located close to main arterial routes with easy access to both Napier and Hastings via the expressway as well as its proximity to Napier Port.

Nankervis said the face of Irongate was changing and there had been large growth over the past few years with the average price per square metre more than doubling.

"This can be put down to a number of factors.

"Location is certainly one, as well as the council's re-zoning of land and providing infrastructure allowing subdivisions to go ahead and businesses to own and occupy.

"The strength of Hawke's Bay's economic climate is also a key factor with investor confidence extremely high in all markets and this is forecast to continue for some time."