The soon-to-be-superseded Countdown Kensington supermarket in Whangarei may become part of the medical cluster in the area that includes Kensington Hospital.
Other possibilities for the site include retail redevelopment, Northland Regional Council chief executive officer Malcolm Nicholson says. The NRC owns the supermarket and its site.
The property, which covers just under a hectare, consists of 12 lots with a land value of $3.635million and capital value of $5.5million.
Mr Nicholson said he understood the property had been bought as a commercial investment. It had not been inherited from the former Northland Harbour Board like some other NRC properties.
Countdown - previously operating as Woolworths - has been on the site at the Kamo Rd-Kensington Ave corner since 1988. The supermarket chain that operates Countdown, Progressive Enterprises, is believed to have paid $5.75million for the old Mitre 10 building in Manse St in Regent and it now has Robert Cunningham Construction organising changes on that site, which has a capital valuation of $6.05million. When the NRC lease runs out at Countdown Kensington in July next year the 84 supermarket staff are expected to be installed in what will be the new Countdown Regent store. A Foodstuffs New World supermarket is across the road.