Trust celebrates mall success

Over the space of 20 years the Pukeroa Oruawhata Trust has turned a "bare parcel of land" into a $106 million retail development - and this week they thanked some of those that helped along the way.

A group of Rotorua business people and retailers were invited to "An evening with development and retail experts, POHL [Pukeroa Oruawhata Holdings Ltd], RCG and Deloitte" to celebrate 20 years of POHL and 10 years of its main development Rotorua Central Mall on Tuesday.

Pukeroa Oruawhata client manager Peter Faulkner said the event was about "looking forward but remembering where we have come from".

"Twenty years ago we received the whole railway yard back. We got the land and the rates bill," he said. "Over the last 20 years we have developed it into an asset with a $106 million valuation ... and a $160 million property group [POHL]".

He said long-standing and strong relationships had been built with Fletcher Building, Hulton Patchell (now Deloitte), BNZ and RCG and he also praised the "enlightened approach" taken by the Rotorua District Council.

"It's been an interesting relationship," he said. "Over the last two to three years they have made the environment for doing business in Rotorua very, very good. It's an easy environment to operate within - a situation where the default position is no longer 'no', it's now 'how can we actually achieve it?'."

Paul Keane, of Auckland-based retail group RCG, gave a visual presentation of the mall's growth.

He said it was a 13-14ha site that had been "developed as we went".

Mr Keane said the Rotorua CBD had benefited from the development of the mall.

"Companies like The Warehouse and Briscoes had nowhere to go. They probably would have gone elsewhere," he said, adding the mall had brought employment to the city and avoided "leakage" of people travelling out of town to shop.

"The future people of Ngati Whakaue ... Pukeroa Oruawhata have presented [them] with a great opportunity ... this will grow."

Mr Faulkner said the Central Mall was as good as anything in New Zealand.

"The success of our organisation and the quality of our operation is equal to anywhere."

He said sometimes Rotorua viewed itself as "the poor cousin" but POHL's future developments plans could change that.

"We want something we can be proud of and don't have to drive to Bayfair [Mt Maunganui] or the Base [Hamilton]."

See this Saturday's Rotorua Daily Post for more on Pukeroa Oruawhata's future plans.