South Island's biggest supermarket, the vast new Pak’nSave Rolleston, is due to open on October 14. Photo / George Heard
Foodstuffs’ expansion continues apace; big Tauranga sale; Metlifecare’s three deals; Marutūahu-Ockham’s new build-to-rent opens: all in the fortnightly Property Insider.
Foodstuffs is quietly feeding its empire.
It has a $380 million-plus pipeline of work in progress or planned.
Some projects opened in the last few months and some are due to open shortly, while an application to develop a new 6000sq m North Shore Pak’nSave has been lodged.
New Zealand’s biggest supermarket business has embarked on an Auckland and Christchurch expansion, via separate southern and northern co-ops.
How much may be spent fixing or rebuilding the fire-damaged New World Victoria Park is not yet known but experts said anything from $20m to $50m could be needed if a full rebuild was undertaken, taking the spending to well above $300m.
Foodstuffs, which sells food and drink under the Pak’nSave, New World, Four Square, Gilmours and Liquorland brands, has a big programme for new and upgraded stores and distribution centres.
Why? More customers, spending more.
We are staying home to cook.
We’re not out as much as we were because of the economic downturn and some shopper habits have been permanently changed by Covid.
For example, New Zealanders are buying more frozen goods and more prepared meals, according to Kris Lancaster, Foodstuffs South Island’s supply chain general manager.
And he would know: he’s in charge of the $28m development of the new frozen distribution centre at Hornby, a building to be chilled to -20C and which is due to open shortly.
Foodstuffs North Island and Foodstuffs South Island, in their $380m-plus expansion and upgrade programme, have:
A vast new Pak’nSave Takapuna could have a terrible effect on Quintin Proctor’s highly profitable Pak’nSave Wairau Road. Proctor is on the National Business Review’s rich list and bought that store aged 38.
Pak’nSave owners can only have one store, so he can’t protect his prized position via buying that new store, if it is built.
Planners Bentley and Co submitted an application for the Pak’nSave Takapuna to be built on a floodplain, with overland flow paths.
The plan was to raise the ground levels for flooding mitigation.
The mostly flat site was once part of the Barrys Pt landfill, which closed in the 1970s and is near the on-ramp to the motorway.
In January 2023, Porana Rd, where Proctor’s store is, was filled with water.
Fred Thomas Drive was also closed because of flooding.
Last July, the Herald listed eight new and replacement supermarkets for Auckland, Tauranga and Havelock North.
Since then, Property Insider has visited Christchurch and seen the expansion there, viewing the distribution centre at Hornby and the new, nearly finished Pak’nSave at Rolleston.
Simon Clark, Colliers managing director in Tauranga, has announced the sale of 262-266 Cameron Rd for $18.66m.
The 4900sq m freehold retail property in the central city has four retailers: Noel Leeming, Chemist Warehouse, Animates and Elite Fitness.
Clark congratulated Classic Collectives and the syndicate of investors who bought it.
The property is a short walk from the CBD and home to four national tenants on long-term leases. That will give guaranteed rental growth and excellent exposure, he said.
Clark worked with Colliers colleagues Rob Schoeser, Peter Herdson and Blair Peterken on the sale.
Classic Collectives says it is a joint-venture company established with house-building business Classic Group.
Metlifecare’s expansion is continuing, although some parts of its growth were only noted latterly.
Two purchases and one sale were approved in the last three years but not announced till the end of May.
The Overseas Investment Office (OIO) last month announced approved transactions for 2023 and 2024.
A Metlifecare spokeswoman said the OIO must publish decision or notification summaries on its website but only announced the three new deals when it reviewed its records.
The Springlands Lifestyle Village in Blenheim is an established village.
A property at 42 Lakings Rd was bought to extend the village by building 24 new independent units.
Construction has taken place over the past two years and is due for completion shortly, the spokeswoman said.
A site in Hamilton’s Rototuna at 135 Horsham Downs Rd was purchased to be developed. Construction of the first 29 villas is due to start in the next few months.
This new village will have 72 independent living units, an aged care home and a communal amenity building.
Stage one of the village is scheduled for completion by mid-2026.
In the third deal, Metlifecare sold a property at 2-6 Emmett St, Shirley, Christchurch. This is an adjacent section to The Village Palms, an established village.
“We have recently entered into an agreement to sell the property,” the spokeswoman said.
“Settlement is scheduled for July.”
The five-iwi Marutūahu collective, along with developers Ockham Residential, this month opened the 36-unit build-to-rent apartments, Kōanga.
The bright yellow block is at 2 Oakley Ave, Waterview, behind the stylish, red-brick Kōkihi, which is above the Waterview motorway tunnels.
Ben Gibbons, Ockham’s chief operating officer, said: “The Ockham and Marutūahu partnership is having a profound impact on this wider area with beautiful and considered intensification, with Kōkihi and Aroha in such close proximity, and the first stage at Carrington Road, just over the creek, nearing completion.”
He was referring to blocks in Waterview and Avondale.
The now-completed Ockham buildings are:
Last month, people were invited to see inside Toi, the first, almost-completed apartment building at the new multi-billion dollar Maungārongo village in Ōwairaka Mt Albert.
Marutūāhu-Ockham has got the new 65-unit Toi block up but not yet completed at Carrington, on ex-Unitec land.
That is part of a wider scheme to build around 40 new apartment blocks with 3000 units in the next two decades.
Toi is due to be finished later this year.
But sales have been slow. By May, only a third of the units in the six-level block had been sold, even though Toi is due to be finished soon.
“We are 34% sold across this project, with a flurry of new interest this year,” an Ockham saleswoman said of Toi.
“We are looking forward to Q4, when the building is anticipated to be complete and we can hand over keys to the excited purchasers.”
On this month’s opening of Kōanga, Ockham said: “The fifth Marutūāhu-Ockham development and the partnership’s first build-to-rent project – it was a special day for us and for Waterview.”
Anne Gibson has been the Herald‘s property editor for 25 years, written books and covered property extensively here and overseas.
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