KEY POINTS:
Construction of a large-scale industrial park called Northgate will commence south of Whangarei in April.
The 92ha industrial park comprising 193 sites will service the new deepwater port and a new town centre planned for Marsden Pt, near Ruakaka.
The industrial centre is the brainchild of Auckland-based Oliver Scott, director and shareholder of North Holdings.
He predicts that the fully developed industrial and town area with land and buildings will be valued at over $1 billion over the next 10 years and will bring a much needed influx of industry and employment to the Northland region.
"Stage 1 of our development, comprising 50 lots on 21.4ha worth $30 million, has already been sold.
"This has been mainly by word of mouth and through Bayleys' database without any advertising," Scott says.
"In fact we've only just been granted resource consent for the development so we're having our first open day today to take advantage of the festivities surrounding the launch of Hoppers' Marsden Cove development, which is expected to attract up to 10,000 people."
The few remaining sections in Stage 1 and another 49 in Stage 2 comprise the first freehold industrial land offered for public purchase on the Port Marsden Highway and One Tree Pt Rd just 3km south of Northport, Marsden Pt's deepwater port.
Lloyd Budd of Bayleys Whangarei, who is marketing the sections with Rod MacFarlane of Bayleys Auckland, says the available sites range from about 2400sq m up to 6200sq m.
"The majority average around 4000sq m and we are offering them for sale at $175 per sq m," Budd says. Titles to the fully serviced sites are due early to mid 2008.
While the entire land area purchased by Scott for the industrial park is 92ha, the net area for construction is 75ha after allowing for roading, reserves, stormwater ponds and other services.
After the sale of the 40ha comprising Stage 1 and Stage 2 of the Northgate Industrial Park, Scott intends holding on to the remaining 35ha for future development.
Directly adjacent to Scott's Northgate industrial park is the 120ha site of a proposed Marsden Pt Town Centre that he jointly owns with local developer Tony Jelas.
The new town centre is expected to include a transport centre, full central business and retail district, shopping centre, high-density residential area, a tertiary education facility, a sports complex and aquatic centre.
Scott also believes Whangarei will, in the near future, have a new international airport similar to Queenstown's that will be capable of handling jet aircraft from overseas.
He says Marsden Pt and Ruakaka are at a stage of development that Tauranga was at 20 years ago.
"With the move towards new container ships that are three to four times the size of current vessels, Marsden Pt could well be the only port in New Zealand capable of docking some of these ships," Scott says.
"They cost US$1 million a day to keep running and want a fast turnaround. It's likely there will only be one international loading and unloading point in New Zealand for each shipping company and Marsden Pt will also be the closest port to Australia."
He sees Marsden Pt being an export-import hub with coastal shipping, rail and road distributing goods south.
"This is why Ports of Tauranga and Ports of Auckland have major shareholdings in Northport," he says.
Ken Crean, chief executive of Northports, the operating company for the Ports of Whangarei and Marsden Pt, says the largest container ships servicing New Zealand ports carry 4100 containers.
"However, it's thought there could be a demand for ships that can carry 6000 containers to dock here," says Crean.
He says Marsden Pt is the deepest port in New Zealand at 14.5m with an under-keel clearance at all tides enabling ships to come in with a draft of 13m.
In comparison, Ports of Auckland has recently completed dredging to 12.5m draft at any time.
Other proposed developments which could drive the need for service industries are a $500 million expansion of the Marsden Pt oil refinery and Mighty River's plans to reinstate the Marsden Pt power station adjoining the port.
Major rail upgrades that will cost an estimated $100 million have been proposed and Transit NZ has developed a new highway from State Highway 1 directly to the port, which runs on the boundary of Northgate industrial park.
Scott says negotiations are under way with Transit to allow direct access to this highway from Northgate.
"Marsden Pt will be another Tauranga. The population in the area is expected to increase by an additional 10,000 to 15,000 by 2020 and construction of both business and residential premises will require service industries."
Scott, originally from Wellington, has been a property developer for over 20 years.
He says he took a huge financial punt purchasing a large amount of land south of Marsden Pt but it was a calculated risk.
"It had future industrial zoning and I anticipated that the new deepwater port and other major developments in the region would see the area boom. It's also flat, easy-development land, close to white sand beaches with a good climate and easy access off the highway.
"The 92ha I was offered a couple of years ago was valued at $14 million and I had four days to make up my mind to buy it at $21 million.
"Now the land component alone would already retail at about $150 million as developed property in today's market."
