Industrial park advertising space

A new commercial and industrial park is advertising space on the outskirts of Matamata. The Waharoa Business Park is a 19- hectare block of lightindustrial zoned land in the rural Waharoa community.

Owned by four private investors, the land has been used as farming pasture for the past 10 years.

Craig Mowatt, one of the investors and current site manager, said he believes the park is the last major industrial space available in eastern Waikato.

The area’s links to other major centres have led to other properties being quickly snapped up.

‘‘It’s a key distribution centre. It’s central to a huge population,’’ Mr Mowatt said.

The park is adjacent to State Highway 27, with three million vehicles passing by the site annually, and has access to the East Coast Main Trunk Railway.

The strength of the park is its potential as a site for both warehousing and distributing, according to Mr Mowatt.

Rotorua, Hamilton and Tauranga are all 50-minute drives, while South Auckland is just over an hour away.

Mr Mowatt said the investor group believes business confidence is increasing and the property market is in good shape.

The park will be built in stages. Seven titled commercial and industrial sections have already been made available in the first stage.

Those sites measure between 3000 and 8000 square metres.

The sections are zoned for light industrial, storage and manufacturing.

The Matamata-Piako District Council is currently planning to zone the subdivision as full industrial, in an effort to sup- port industry in the community, Mr Mowatt said.

One site in stage one has already been sold to accommodate dairying technology.

The second stage will have about 10 more sections for sale between 6000sqm and four hectares, but that will most likely change, because clients may call for tailored lot sizes, Mr Mowatt said.

The owners, who are selfmarketing the property, have said they will consider all offers, from outright title sales to designing and purpose-building for clients.

There has been interest in the sites in stage two, but no commitments have yet been made, he said.

Mr Mowatt does not want to put pricing indications around the property.

Instead, the investment group is calling for expressions of interest and the prices will be negotiable.