Work on firm’s park site well advanced
ONCE considered by some to be a white elephant, the North Oamaru Business Park is proving to be anything but, as the the number of businesses at the site next to State Highway 1 continues to grow.
Work to prepare a 3800sq m site at the 22ha business park for Oamaru business Apex Engineering is well advanced and when construction is completed, the company now situated in Ribble St will join Te Pari Products, Tyre General, Johnson Gluyas Tractors, Waterforce, Firman Joinery, Acucut, Milligan’s Food Group’s animal nutrition division and COF & WOF Ltd at the business park.
Four of the 17 sections that were part of the first stage of the business park remain unsold.
Tony Spivey, of Spivey Real Estate, the estate agent promoting the business park, said despite a cool period over the past several months in terms of potential development, many local businesses were considering the site as a future option.
‘‘More latterly the majority of inquiries have been local, but a couple nationally. It has been reasonably steady but it would be fair to say the last six months or so has been a little slower with absolutes, but the inquiry is still there,’’ he said.
In 2012, the Waitaki District Council entered an agree ment with the business park’s developer, Oamaru Land Holdings, owned by Auckland businessmen Andrew and Michael Carpenter, to enable the start of the first stage of the site.
The site was owned by Japanese businessman the late Dr Hirotomo Ochi, who also owned Teschemakers, and he had plans for a business park on it. He died in 2005 and the site was bought in 2008 by the Carpenters, initially through their company, TR Group Ltd.
At the time, some in the community were critical of the development and did not consider a business park in Oamaru to be viable.
It was argued by Mr Spivey’s father, the late Tony Spivey sen, that a business park was needed in Oamaru.
Mr Spivey said his father’s confidence in the development was wellplaced.
‘‘I guess any change is something greeted with a little bit scepticism, especially in a place like Oamaru where traditionally it’s fair to say we have missed our flip on many proposed developments. There was definitely a sign we could see that something of this nature was seriously required. It was very hard to secure business 3A or 4 zoning — that was unimproved where you could build and do things of that nature.
‘‘The proof of the pudding is in the tasting . . . We got it bang on.’’