$20m plan for Rangiora

A $20 million plan would create a new bulk retail complex for Rangiora and bring retailers Briscoes and Animates to North Canterbury for the first time.

The 1.2 hectare site, at the corner of High St and East Belt, has been sold by the Warehouse to Christchurch property development Canterbury Property Investments. The price was $5.8m.

The land is next to the Warehouse store and has been used as carparking.

Canterbury Property Investments director Miles Yeoman said the region had a catchment of 50,000 shoppers which was a significant market for retailers. They have signed up four retailers for the space and lodged a resource consent application with Waimakariri District Council for the project.

At 2400sqm, the Briscoes store would be similar in size to the central Christchurch outlet.

Housewares chain Briscoes, owned by the publicly listed Briscoe Group, has more than 40 stores throughout New Zealand and made $170m worth of sales in the past year.

Pet store chain Animates also has more than 40 stores nationwide and is in expansion mode with several new ones under development.

The other stores going into the complex will be Warehouse Stationery, which will move from an earlier development by Canterbury Property Investments across the road, and Supercheap Auto.

The former industrial area has become a hub for big box type stores and as well as the Warehouse has Noel Leeming, Repco, Pizza Hit and Couplands.

Yeoman said the development would ‘‘help anchor that eastern end of Rangiora’’.

The development site was previously owned by Mainpower before being sold to the Warehouse which used part of it to expand.