Sticking with a prime CBD site has finally paid off for Whangarei Pak'n Save.
The inner city's only big box had everything - easy access from arterial routes and just over the road from an international yachting community - except space to expand.
Over the years there have been rumours
that Pak'n Save owner Foodstuffs would relocate the store but all that was laid to rest when the company bought the adjacent Pacific Motor Group site on the corner of Dent and Carruth Sts, for an undisclosed sum.
Foodstuffs found a new site for Pacific Motor Group, the 14,000 sq m McBreen Jenkins site in Kaka St off Porowini St.
Foodstuffs had long been eyeing properties adjacent to Whangarei Pak'n Save.
These included the former Army Hall on the corner of Walton and Robert Sts but that proved to be a no-go because of the historic protections on the building.
Foodstuffs property development manager Angela Bull says the company will expand the existing building and put in more carparking, with detailed planning due to begin as soon as Pacific Motors moves off the site. Foodstuffs would be "putting a lot of effort and thought into the expansion design."