Big tick for Showgrounds deal
Two major chains have confirmed tenancies at Timaru’s Showgrounds Hill retail centre, three days after the sale went unconditional.
Bunnings Warehouse and Countdown both confirmed yesterday they will be tenants at the development – the same day Redwood Group confirmed it had purchased the 12-hectare site.
Timaru District Holdings Ltd chairman Ian Fitzgerald said the sale went unconditional on Friday.
Redwood Group chairman Tony Gapes told The Timaru Herald
site work would start today.
Gapes said the company was working with a number of tenants now it had Countdown and Bunnings finalised.
‘‘Most of these will be new to Timaru and we should be able to announce these early next year,’’ he said.
Bunnings New Zealand director Jacqui Coombes said ‘‘we’ve been searching for a location that allows us to serve the Timaru community for some time, and we’re pleased to confirm we plan to become a tenant at the development when it’s constructed’’.
‘‘We expect the store to create more than 80 new team member positions when it opens in 2022.
‘‘It will allow us to offer a wide range of home and lifestyle products to Timaru residents in a convenient location, that also
includes other large format retailers,’’ Coombes said.
Bunnings has six stores in the South Island – three in Christchurch, one in Blenheim, one in Nelson and one in Dunedin and 47 stores nationwide. It closed its Ashburton branch in June.
A spokesperson for Countdown said it had plans for a new 3900 square-metre store, with pharmacy and online drive through pick-up, while at this stage, it would aim to open the store in mid-2022.
Countdown already has stores in Browne St and Church St in Timaru.
‘‘We’re looking forward to bringing a new Countdown to the northern end of the city, and we hope this will be a convenient and exciting new offer for our Timaru customers that complements our other Timaru stores,’’ Countdown’s acting general manager for property Matt Grainger said.
‘‘We’ll be working with Redwood Group on the detailed timeline and look forward to sharing this with the community next year.’’
Redwood Group’s development will be done in three stages, which was granted consents for subdivision and land use on December 11 – the first stage set to be completed by July 2022, the second by July 2025 and the final by July 2027.
In November 2019, Timaru District Holdings Ltd, the council’s holding company, confirmed it had sold the 12ha site, subject to due diligence, to Redwood Group. TDHL had purchased the site for $6.296m in April 2017.
The site will have 1228 carpark spaces, while a proposed traffic
‘‘Most of these [tenants] will be new to Timaru and we should be able to announce these early next year.’’
Tony Gapes
Redwood Group chairman
light intersection for Bridge Rd/State Highway 1 will also become a stop sign controlled intersection.
The Timaru Herald has approached other ‘‘big box’’ retailers about whether they would be interested in establishing themselves at the site.
A third business, nationwide coffee chain Black & White Coffee Cartel, is advertising a franchise opportunity in Timaru with the address listed as ‘Showground, Evans St’.
An advertisement for the franchise says ‘‘We’re excited to announce that we have secured an outstanding location in Timaru and we are now looking for an enthusiastic owneroperator to join our team’’.
The development has already proved controversial, with several CBD business owners concerned it would pump money out of the town centre, while the Timaru Town Centre Ratepayers’ Action Group (TCRAG) has given council notice of its intent to lodge a Judicial Review over consents being granted without public notification