Tainui Group Holdings, the commercial arm of the Waikato-Tainui tribe, will contribute 10 per cent of Hamilton city’s total annual rate take when its massive Ruakura Superhub is fully developed.
Already one of Hamilton’s largest property ratepayers at $6 million a year, the company estimates the master-planned Ruakura Superhub with 490ha of inland port, logistics, commercial, industrial and residential precincts and green areas will comprise 8 per cent of the city’s land mass.
Chief executive Chris Joblin told the Herald it would provide around 10 per cent of the city’s rate take.
“As a property development company, TGH also makes significant development contribution costs to Hamilton City Council for each new development project, and invests significantly in infrastructure, including roading, cycleways, footpaths and at Ruakura, the 10-hectare wetland park that will be open for public use,” he said.
Observers of TGH’s Ruakura Superhub investment, nudging $1 billion and 16 years in the planning and consents stages, have been quick to question the company’s rates-paying status amid publicity around the huge development because TGH is registered as a charitable trust, as a member of the Waikato Raupatu Lands Trust and Group.
As a major commercial property developer, TGH sometimes comes in for public criticism because as a charity many of its assets are not subject to the Income Tax Act.
TGH’s response to this criticism is: “TGH operates (as the commercial entity of Te Whakakitenga o Waikato Inc, formerly known as Waikato-Tainui Te Kauhanganui Inc) as an approved charity under the Income Tax Act 1994. This was part of a package of redress agreed in 1995, for historical injustices which saw the illegal confiscation of 480,000 hectares of land following the Land Wars of 1863.
“In practice, this means TGH pays tax on assets it indirectly owns which include our share portfolio, private equity investments and fishing operations, while the balance of TGH’s assets are directly owned and are not applicable for tax under the relevant provisions of the Act.
“The IRD has recently confirmed TGH’s compliance with all the relevant tax regulations and, over time, almost all of TGH’s earnings have been passed on to our iwi for social investment in programmes which support the wellbeing of 78,000 iwi members through care of kaumātua, education scholarships and grants, promoting te reo, affordable housing initiatives, primary health care services, employment development, environmental initiatives and marae improvements.”
Joblin said TGH had paid local authority rates on the returned Ruakura land since the company’s creation in 2003.
According to Waikato Raupatu Lands Trust and Group’s 2022 financial results, the entity had total non-current assets, including forestry, property and investment property of $1.97b.
Total current assets were valued at $504m, while total liabilities were $292.7m. Net assets were $1.68b.
Total revenue was $78.3m and the entity reported a net surplus after tax of $311m, attributable to the equity holders of Waikato Raupatu Lands Trust and Group.
After drawn-out beginnings, the Ruakura Superhub is rising fast in Hamilton.
The 30ha inland port, a joint venture between TGH and NZX-listed Port of Tauranga and a cornerstone of the massive development, is finished and is due to open late next month or early August.
More landmarks in stage one of an adjacent 89ha logistics precinct will open for business within six months. Lessees include a 40,000sq m distribution centre for Kmart due to start operating in September, a 13,000sq m cold store facility for Big Chill and a 16,000sq m cold store for shipping giant Maersk.
Joblin said with strong demand for sites in this first 35ha of the first stage, TGH is now preparing to kick off the next stage, probably later this year or early next year with a new lineup of tenants.
Work has begun developing 40 residential sections at Tuumata Rise at the extreme northern end of the huge site, which dwarfs any similar development in Australasia, with a further 80 sections planned.
TGH has applied for consent to rezone this area from industrial to provide for up to 1300 medium-density dwellings, open space and a neighbourhood centre for around 3000 people.
Andrea Fox joined the NZ Herald six years ago and writes about the dairy industry, agribusiness, and the logistics and freight sectors.