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The development will be beside the Mitre 10 site in Warkworth.
By George Driver
The long-awaited retail development known as Stockyard Falls looks set to finally get off the ground as Wellsford-raised rich-lister Glen Inger has bought the site.
The 4ha Warkworth site, beside Mitre 10 Mega, adjoining Woodcocks Road and Mansel Drive, has been earmarked for development for over a decade.
Mr Inger says he will lodge a resource consent for a retail centre next month. The development will have about 15,000m2 of retail – about double the size of The Grange – and will be called Kowhai Falls. The shopping centre will also have several hundred carparks.
Mr Inger says the development will be similar in style to the proposal which the Rodney District Council approved in 2007.
“It will be a large-scale retail centre that will be integrated with the Mitre 10 site,” Mr Inger says. “We won’t be focused on small-box businesses or food retailers like in The Grange.
“Once we have the consents approved we want to go to the market with an approved plan and get tenants signed.”
The construction date will depend on the level of interest and it could be built in two or three stages.
He says he bought the site in anticipation of growth in the area.
“Warkworth’s growth will be substantial. Once the motorway is built, that growth will continue and the demand will definitely be there. I’ve had a lot experience with the Warehouse Group, developing their sites over many years, including the Silverdale Centre. We are long-term thinkers and I see it more as an investment, rather than a short-term development.”
The development will be similar to a shopping centre Mr Inger recently completed on Manukau Road in Pukekohe, called The Zone.
The Warkworth site has a 2014 capital value of $4.9 million and is zoned commercial.
It was part of a proposed $95 million development, driven by developer Neil Barr, who planned a 23,000m2 retail centre.
The project took five years to get approval as Mr Barr battled NZTA concerns about traffic congestion and only Mitre 10 Mega, Summerset Falls Retirement Village and Ceratelle Marketing were built. Mr Barr abandoned the project in 2011 and the land had been on the market since.
Mr Inger was born and raised in Wellsford and went to Wellsford School and Rodney College. He was executive director of the Warehouse Group for 11 years, before retiring in 2005.
He was a founding director of The Warehouse, along with Stephen Tindall and Gerard Peterson, and was responsible for developing new sites for the company.
He also has investments in farming and horticulture in Rodney, including a share in a major avocado development with Southern Paprika owner Hamish Alexander.
