Industrial sites will help ease shortage

The industrial park is under construction at 102 Hobsonville Rd.

The initial sale of 11 new sites within a new Hobsonville industrial subdivision will go some way to alleviating an industrial property shortage in West Auckland.
Hobsonville Workspace at 102 Hobsonville Rd is a 23 lot subdivision of fully serviced industrial sites being developed by The Neil Group in West Auckland.

The first 11 new land lots are being pre-sold with the freehold titles due at the end of the year, by Chris Upright of Colliers International and his colleagues Dhiru Patel and Dwayne Warby.

Upright says he expects strong interest, not only from developers and investors, but especially owner occupiers.

"The combination of the scale of development currently underway in the north-west of Auckland, along with the lack of business land sites available in the area, means many owner occupiers are desperate to secure a site," Upright says.

"With increasing pressure on the supply and price of industrial land in Auckland, it is becoming more and more challenging for companies to find land that's the right size, and in the right location, to operate their businesses from."

The initial 11 lots to be released range in size from 2443 sq m to 5500 sq m.
"The largest of these sites has already been snapped up, and buyers are in negotiations over three others," says Upright.

Chris Upright of Colliers International.

"This highlights the anticipated level of demand we expected for land lots of this calibre."
The remaining available sites are priced from $400 per sq m to $550 per sq m, equating to purchase prices of land parcels between $977,000 and $2,231,000.

Upright says The Neil Group is one of New Zealand's most established property development companies, having been in business for more than 50 years. "It is involved with land subdivision and building development projects predominantly in the Auckland region, and its most recent major projects include large mixed-used office, retail and apartment developments in Grafton as well as residential subdivisions in West Auckland and Botany."

Patel says north-west Auckland is traditionally an owner occupier location, and the lots coming on the market are ideally suited to that niche.
"Hobsonville Workspace is a long overdue hub in this area for owners needing a new business location to service both an immediate customer base and huge growth potential."

The subdivision is zoned as A2 Hobsonville Village Centre Special Area but under the Proposed Auckland Unitary Plan the land will be zoned Light Industrial allowing for a wide range of industrial activities with limited commercial use.

The subdivision is located between the main arterial of Hobsonville Road to its east and the new Upper Harbour motorway along State Highway 18 to its west.

Dwayne Warby, an agent with Colliers.

It is within 20 minutes' drive of Auckland's CBD and access to Auckland Airport will also be improved once the current north-western ring route and nearby Waterview Tunnel projects are completed, providing a key link between south Auckland and the North Shore.

Warby says the Hobsonville Workspace locality is flanked by two major new developments - Hobsonville Point's residential expansion and the Westgate Retail Park (WRP).
"WRP is the largest master-planned urbanisation project currently underway in New Zealand.

"It is projected to generate several thousand jobs, and become the major commercial hub of northwest Auckland. It will be a key metropolitan urban centre for the Auckland region offering shopping, entertainment, business and public amenities spread over 56 hectares.
"The surrounding commercial activity is mostly large format retail and light industrial which borders a major concentration of residential homes."

Warby says the location is also within 15 minutes' drive from home for approximately 475,000 people - including the growing Massey North area.

"Residential developments like nearby Hobsonville Point, are being fast-tracked to meet the needs of Auckland's growing population."