Foodstuffs expands with $380m in projects, new North Shore Pak'nSave planned
New Zealand's biggest supermarket business has embarked on an Auckland and Christchurch expansion, via separate southern and northern co-ops.
How much may be spent fixing or rebuilding the fire-damaged New World Victoria Park is not yet known but experts said anything from $20m to $50m could be needed if a full rebuild was undertaken, taking the spending to well above $300m.
The South Island's biggest supermarket, the vast new Pak'nSave Rolleston, is due to open on October 14. Photo / George Heard
Foodstuffs, which sells food and drink under the Pak'nSave, New World, Four Square, Gilmours and Liquorland brands, has a big programme for new and upgraded stores and distribution centres.
Why? More customers, spending more.
We are staying home to cook.
We're not out as much as we were because of the economic downturn and some shopper habits have been permanently changed by Covid.
A rare look inside the huge new Pak'nSave Rolleston this month. Photo / George Heard
For example, New Zealanders are buying more frozen goods and more prepared meals, according to Kris Lancaster, Foodstuffs South Island's supply chain general manager.
And he would know: he's in charge of the $28m development of the new frozen distribution centre at Hornby, a building to be chilled to -20C and which is due to open shortly.
Foodstuffs South Island's new $28m automated freezer distribution centre. Photo / George Heard
Foodstuffs North Island and Foodstuffs South Island, in their $380m-plus expansion and upgrade programme, have:
Sought consent from Auckland Council for the $100m, 6000sq m Pak'nSave Takapuna on a reclaimed greenfields site, 6 Fred Thomas Drive opposite the Lake House. Application lodged last year; Developed and opened in February the new $100m Pak'nSave Highland Park; Developed the new $73m New World Pt Chevalier, set to open this September; Bought Woolworths Te Atatū to upgrade to New World Te Atatū; Developed and are opening the $40m+ Pak'nSave Rolleston near Christchurch this October; Developed the new $28m frozen distribution centre at Hornby, Christchurch, set to open on August 21; Refurbished and expanded the flood-hit New World Mt Albert for $6m; Opened the New Four Square Ōpunaki near New Plymouth in April, costing about $6m; Opened the Four Square Waipawa in Hawke's Bay last November, costing about $5m; Opened the Four Square Putāruru last November, costing about $5m; Opened the New World The Stands at Pāpāmoa on November 5; And developed the Gilmours Hawkes Bay, which was only a delivery service. Last month, it opened as a wholesale cash-and-carry store for customers in a $12.6m upgrade.
A vast new Pak'nSave Takapuna could have a terrible effect on Quintin Proctor's highly profitable Pak'nSave Wairau Road. Proctor is on the National Business Review's rich list and bought that store aged 38.
A 6000sq m Pak'nSave store, costing possibly $100m, is planned at 6 Fred Thomas Drive, Takapuna.
Pak'nSave owners can only have one store, so he can't protect his prized position via buying that new store, if it is built.
Planners Bentley and Co submitted an application for the Pak'nSave Takapuna to be built on a floodplain, with overland flow paths.
The plan was to raise the ground levels for flooding mitigation.
The mostly flat site was once part of the Barrys Pt landfill, which closed in the 1970s and is near the on-ramp to the motorway.
Flood-damaged food inside the Pak'nSave Wairau Road after the devastating Auckland floods of January 2023.
In January 2023, Porana Rd, where Proctor's store is, was filled with water.
Fred Thomas Drive was also closed because of flooding.
Last July, the Herald listed eight new and replacement supermarkets for Auckland, Tauranga and Havelock North.
Quintin Proctor was 38 when he bought the Pak'nSave Wairau Park, one of the country's largest supermarkets.
Since then, Property Insider has visited Christchurch and seen the expansion there, viewing the distribution centre at Hornby and the new, nearly finished Pak'nSave at Rolleston.
$18.66m Tauranga sale
Simon Clark, Colliers managing director in Tauranga, has announced the sale of 262-266 Cameron Rd for $18.66m.
The 4900sq m freehold retail property in the central city has four retailers: Noel Leeming, Chemist Warehouse, Animates and Elite Fitness.
Clark congratulated Classic Collectives and the syndicate of investors who bought it.
A commercial site in Tauranga that houses Noel Leeming, Animates, Chemist Warehouse and Elite Fitness has been sold for $18.6m.
The property is a short walk from the CBD and home to four national tenants on long-term leases. That will give guaranteed rental growth and excellent exposure, he said.
Clark worked with Colliers colleagues Rob Schoeser, Peter Herdson and Blair Peterken on the sale.
Classic Collectives says it is a joint-venture company established with house-building business Classic Group.
Deals at three Metlifecare sites
Metlifecare's expansion is continuing, although some parts of its growth were only noted latterly.
Two purchases and one sale were approved in the last three years but not announced till the end of May.
The Overseas Investment Office (OIO) last month announced approved transactions for 2023 and 2024.
A Metlifecare spokeswoman said the OIO must publish decision or notification summaries on its website but only announced the three new deals when it reviewed its records.
Metlifecare CEO Earl Gasparich says the third-largest retirement village company has undergone a significant transformation behind closed doors over the past four years.
The Springlands Lifestyle Village in Blenheim is an established village.
A property at 42 Lakings Rd was bought to extend the village by building 24 new independent units.
Construction has taken place over the past two years and is due for completion shortly, the spokeswoman said.
A site in Hamilton's Rototuna at 135 Horsham Downs Rd was purchased to be developed. Construction of the first 29 villas is due to start in the next few months.
This new village will have 72 independent living units, an aged care home and a communal amenity building.
Stage one of the village is scheduled for completion by mid-2026.
In the third deal, Metlifecare sold a property at 2-6 Emmett St, Shirley, Christchurch. This is an adjacent section to The Village Palms, an established village.
'We have recently entered into an agreement to sell the property,' the spokeswoman said.
'Settlement is scheduled for July.'
Marutūahu-Ockham opens Kōanga
Kōanga, the build-to-rent apartment block, opened in June in Waterview. The development is at 2 Oakley Ave, Auckland. Photo / Ockham
The five-iwi Marutūahu collective, along with developers Ockham Residential, this month opened the 36-unit build-to-rent apartments, Kōanga.
The bright yellow block is at 2 Oakley Ave, Waterview, behind the stylish, red-brick Kōkihi, which is above the Waterview motorway tunnels.
The opening of Ockham development's new apartment block Kōkihi in Waterview, Auckland. Photo / Alex Burton
Kōkihi at Waterview by a Māori/Pākehā joint venture. Photo / Alex Burton
Ben Gibbons, Ockham's chief operating officer, said: 'The Ockham and Marutūahu partnership is having a profound impact on this wider area with beautiful and considered intensification, with Kōkihi and Aroha in such close proximity, and the first stage at Carrington Road, just over the creek, nearing completion.'
Kōanga, the rental apartments, at 2 Oakley Ave, Waterview, Auckland. This project was opened in June. Photo / Ockham
He was referring to blocks in Waterview and Avondale.
The Kōanga build-to-rent apartments, developed at 2 Oakley Ave, Waterview, Auckland. The project was opened in June. Photo / Ockham
The now-completed Ockham buildings are:
The Ockham Building, 25 apartments, Kingsland Wilkinson House (see below) The Wamaka Buildings, Wilkinson Rd, Ellerslie, 18 apartments The Isaac, 75 apartments, Grey Lynn The Turing, 27 apartments, Grey Lynn Station R, 37 apartments, Mt Eden Hypatia, 61 apartments, Newmarket Daisy, 33 apartments, Mt Eden Bernoulli Gardens, 120 apartments, Hobsonville Set Buildings, 72 apartments, Avondale Tuatahi, 119 apartments, Mt Albert Modal, 32 apartments, Mt Albert Kōkihi, 95 apartments, Waterview The Nix, 32 apartments, Grey Lynn Koa Flats, 14 apartments, Meadowbank Aroha, 117 units, Avondale Manaaki, 210 units, Onehunga; Kōanga, 36 build-to-rent units, Waterview.
Last month, people were invited to see inside Toi, the first, almost-completed apartment building at the new multi-billion dollar Maungārongo village in Ōwairaka Mt Albert.
Toi, the new apartment building in Ōwairaka Mt Albert by Marutūāhu-Ockham, as at late February, 2025. Photo / Ockham Residential
Marutūāhu-Ockham has got the new 65-unit Toi block up but not yet completed at Carrington, on ex-Unitec land.
That is part of a wider scheme to build around 40 new apartment blocks with 3000 units in the next two decades.
The new Toi apartment block in Ōwairaka Mt Albert by Marutūāhu-Ockham is nearing completion. Photo / Ockham Residential
Toi is due to be finished later this year.
But sales have been slow. By May, only a third of the units in the six-level block had been sold, even though Toi is due to be finished soon.
'We are 34% sold across this project, with a flurry of new interest this year,' an Ockham saleswoman said of Toi.
'We are looking forward to Q4, when the building is anticipated to be complete and we can hand over keys to the excited purchasers.'
On this month's opening of Kōanga, Ockham said: 'The fifth Marutūāhu-Ockham development and the partnership's first build-to-rent project – it was a special day for us and for Waterview.'
Anne Gibson has been the Herald's property editor for 25 years, written books and covered property extensively here and overseas.
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