Ng¯ai Tahu selling Landing complex
The town centre of one of Christchurch’s newest suburbs is being sold off by its owner, Nga¯ i Tahu Property.
The iwi-owned company is selling The Landing, the central shopping and hospitality strip in Wigram in southwest Christchurch. It has restaurants, food outlets, shops and offices.
The Landing has been put up for sale as either the entire complex or in two parts.
Nga¯i Tahu Property began building the Wigram Skies subdivision on the former Wigram aerodrome a decade ago, with plans for 1800 homes for 4000 residents and a $40 million town centre.
Work began on The Landing and surrounding commercial sites in 2014.
The complex has shops and food outlets on Skyhawk Rd and The Runway, with offices upstairs, and restaurants centred around an open public square.
The tenants include a range of shops, restaurants Joe’s Garage and Mexicali Fresh and Fush, neighbourhood bar The Good Home, and fast food outlets Hell Pizza and Subway.
Together, they bring Nga¯i Tahu Property a net rental of just over $1.2m a year.
The whole site covers almost 1.3 hectares and includes car parking areas.
Nga¯i Tahu has already sold substantial chunks of its original Wigram town centre development to investors.
The largest piece was the site sold to Foodstuffs South Island
for the New World supermarket.
Wigram Health Properties bought the nearby premises occupied by nearby radiology and physiotherapy clinics, while the town centre’s veterinary clinic and preschool sites have also been sold.
Another big site was sold to Christchurch development company Wigram Investments to build the eight-screen Silky Otter cinema, which opened in late July.
Opposite that is the latest development in the area, a threestorey commercial complex being built by Christchurch entrepreneur Sean Zhao.
Nga¯i Tahu Property bought the land for Wigram Skies from the Government for $18.5m in 1996.
After the Government closed the air force base there, Nga¯i Tahu continued to run it as a commercial airfield until subdivision preparations began in 2009.
Nga¯ i Tahu Property is one of New Zealand’s biggest private property developers and investors, and owns property worth about $600m.