Sir Peter Jackson is building a large warehouse, residential units, an animal quarantine facility and a vet hospital in Miramar.
New details of a major development planned by Sir Peter Jackson can be revealed; documents showing the famous film-maker’s multimillion-dollar vision to expand his Wellington property empire.
Representatives of Jackson and his partner Dame Fran Walsh announced in early October they planned to build a specialist vet hospital near Jackson’s film studios. At the time, a building consent had not been lodged for the project.
Consent documents released to the Herald now show the scale of Jackson’s plans.
The vet hospital is just one part of the sizeable development.
The site, on Park Rd in Miramar, is made up of multiple parcels of land, totalling 10,930sqm.
The Lord of the Rings director’s plans for the site include a large storage facility, an animal quarantine centre, and five residential units, as well as the previously announced animal hospital.
Jackson and Walsh purchased the properties in 2022 for a reported $12 million through one of their companies, Stanley Properties Ltd.
The site is opposite Jackson’s purpose-built premises for his company Park Road Post-Production and nearby the offices of his visual effects and animation company Wētā FX, which is the billionaire’s largest business.
The land previously housed commercial buildings that have been demolished since Jackson took ownership. Only the concrete floor slabs remain.
Documents show the large warehouse facility will be constructed in an L-shape behind the vet hospital. It will border Miramar Park and will be 15m high.
The warehouse will be built first, the consent application states.
An animal quarantine space is planned to keep pets like “cats, dogs and other small animals imported from overseas”, the documents show.
The housing units will be used as short-stay accommodation, but the design has not yet been finalised.
They will cater for people with animals in the quarantine and hospital facility as well as “visitors involved in the film industry”.
The development is being undertaken by WingNut PM, the property arm of Jackson and Walsh’s WingNut Group.
It consists of three key buildings, car parking, a landscaped front entrance plaza, and an internal courtyard and animal exercise area.
The site was historically a petroleum products depot for British Imperial Oil, later Shell, between 1923 and 1965.
It was later used for various manufacturing and warehousing activities, a site investigation report states, including a steel fabrication and storage building, and warehousing and workshops.
Special consideration has been made for a row of 16 council-managed pōhutukawa trees located in Miramar Park, lining the boundary of Jackson’s site.
A 20-page report made recommendations for the protection of the trees in the construction of the warehouse.
The development is said to be one of several long-term development initiatives by Jackson and Walsh to “provide new services and stimulate growth and investment in Wellington”, WingNut said in a statement about the vet hospital earlier this month.
The vet facility is a partnership with Auckland veterinarians Dr Karl Mathis and Dr Fiona Park, of the Animal Referral Centre (AFC) Vets.
“Animal welfare is a subject dear to our hearts,” Jackson and Walsh said at the time.
“We have previously had to transport our own pets to Auckland for urgent, specialist care by the wonderful team at ARC. We think Wellingtonians and their pets deserve to have a facility of this calibre close to home, that they can call on when the need arises.”
The project is due to be completed in early 2028 and is part of the pair’s “broader vision to strengthen Miramar as a thriving hub of creative and commercial enterprise”.
Asked about the plans, a WingNut spokeswoman said “at this stage, the only commercial activity planned for the WingNut PM Park Road development is the recently announced ARC Vet facility”
“The residential units are intended to provide accommodation support for this facility.”
The billionaire film-maker is said to hold warehouses full of prized collections of film props, sets, and costumes.
He also holds an extensive private collection of vintage aircraft, made up largely of WWI planes.
Jackson’s significant property holdings have grown in the suburb in recent years. He now owns nearly $100m in real estate in the neighbourhood alone.
The neighbourhood, dubbed Jacksonville because of his sprawling portfolio, includes the local cinema, churches, and residential properties.
In 2018, a Herald investigation showed his property portfolio, which is based in Wellington but also stretches from Masterton to Queenstown, was worth $150m.
Since then it has continued to grow.
In 2024, Jackson purchased an entire block of leasehold land in Rongotai near the Wellington Airport for $105m, which was the year’s biggest land deal at the time.
That site is rumoured to be the location of his long-touted movie museum plans.
Earlier this year it was revealed the rich-lister purchased a school campus next door to Richard Taylor and Tania Rodger’s Wētā Workshop.
The school had earlier relocated, but the site is yet to be developed. Jackson is understood to have paid $5.48 million for the site. It’s recent rateable valuation was $1.74m.
Ethan Manera is a Wellington-based journalist covering Wellington issues, local politics and business in the capital. He can be emailed at ethan.manera@nzme.co.nz.