Spedding Road in Whenuapai is Auckland’s largest greenfield industrial development north of the airport.
Cameron Wilson, a director of Oyster Capital, which owns the site, says it is unusual for an Auckland development site because it offers owner-occupiers and developers the opportunity to work with large block sizes: “One of the most important aspects of Spedding Road is that it offers 50ha of contiguous land relatively close to the city.
“At the moment, we’re seeing enquiries that suggest there’s a huge demand, particularly for companies looking at upscaling from existing sites. Albany, which is nearby on the North Shore has been done very well, but historically the sites and the buildings there are not at a large scale. Spedding Road is an opportunity for that to change.”
About one-third of the land is already under contract.
Oyster could offer close to 20 ha in a single block, but more commonly is looking at sites from 6000 sqm through to 50,000 sqm. Wilson says there are few other sites that can offer these sizes.
The other key aspect is that Spedding Road is close to two motorways. That is why it was identified years ago by the former Waitakere District Council as a potential West Auckland employment hub.
It borders State Highway 16 and Brigham Creek Road which connects direct to State Highway 18. The motorway connects to State Highway 1 via the recently upgraded Upper Harbour Highway extension.
Wilson says the road connections mean his business is seeing a huge amount of interest from logistics and transport- related companies.
He says the Covid lockdowns meant there was a renewed focus on the importance of logistics and that many in the food and other distribution areas are looking at future-proofing their operations; that means finding sites that are large enough to cope with years of growth.
Spedding Road sits at the heart of Auckland’s northwest growth corridor. To the south is the Westgate retail centre while large residential developments including Hobsonville are nearby. Whenuapai itself is scheduled to add between 8000 and 10,000 additional dwellings between now and 2041.
Cameron Wilson, a director of Oyster Capital, which owns the Spedding Road development site
Part of the attraction of Spedding Road for council planners is that it means people living in one of the city’s fastest-growing regions won’t need to travel long distances to work.
“The population growth projections for Whenuapai suggest the area is going to require 134 hectares of zoned light industrial land,” Wilson says. “Auckland Council and central government are working well on providing the infrastructure the area needs. Housing is being provided by developers. Industrial comes next.”
Oyster has been engaged with the site since 2013. At the time Oyster was involved with the local and central government Housing Accord initiative. Wilson says it was a fantastic opportunity and council staff became much more engaged with developers as there was a clear joint sense of purpose.
“We looked at Spedding Road as a residential development and quickly discovered that it was probably the wrong location for a number of factors, not least that it had a legacy of being identified as an employment hub by council planners. So we left and took a site over the road which we spent the next decade developing. That finished last year.”
The property was owned by a farming family for a very long time. Several different organisations took contracts to develop the land without success. Wilson says: “We engaged again in 2019. Because of our earlier collaboration with the council, we found it easy to work with them. And made it happen.”
There were challenges but he says the opportunity was obvious. Watercare needed to put a significant rising main through the site to connect to its Northern Interceptor wastewater project.
“This has been a subject of a lot of discussion over the years, but it is going in and it is advantageous for us.”
The main barrier to the project was time, but Wilson says that’s not a bad thing: “We engaged really well with the council and the council-controlled organisations.
“Watercare supported us, Auckland Transport supported us and we are doing our bit for the infrastructure with nine roading upgrade initiatives including the phased signalisation of the roundabout at the intersection of State Highways 16 and 18.
“We’re doing links to Brigham Creek Road and Fred Taylor Drive and an extension of Spedding Road that adds another connection between State Highways 16 and 18.
Road connections mean the Spedding Road project is getting a huge amount of interest from logistics and transport-related companies.
“We’re also replacing the Brigham Creek Road bridge. Meanwhile, Watercare has purchased land for a pump station to serve the catchment.”
He says the relationship with Auckland Council has been strong throughout. Many of the relationships that were formed during the Housing Accord initiative remained in place, which meant council planners and developers had a better understanding of each other. Wilson says there’s a clear sense of everyone wanting to get on with things as the city continues to grow at a fast rate. “They are as excited about that growth as we are”. He sees the work at Spedding Road as proof of how council can work with the private sector and says it could be a pathway for future developments.
Oyster has been working with Vector to put power infrastructure into the site. There is plenty of power in the area and a new substation is going into the area to cater for data centres and other businesses with higher electricity needs, this could include recharging electric vehicles.
Wilson says today’s businesses are looking for sustainability and green credentials: “It’s unlikely any development on the site won’t have a high level of green certification.
“One of the opportunities for new builds like this is that developers can build a little differently. They can go for greater efficiencies, putting in skylights for example in the right places between racking so that the energy-efficient features are not an afterthought.”
The first investor to buy land at Spedding Road was the NZX-listed Property for Industry, which has taken 5.8 ha.
“That validated the whole concept for us. PFI wanted to secure a future pipeline of industrial buildings.”
· Oyster Capital and Spedding are advertising sponsors of the Herald’s Project Auckland report.
