Industrial boom across Nelson sparks demand for bare land

Nelson’s booming industrial sector is being mirrored in hot demand for well-positioned industrial land.

Geoff Faulkner, a broker with Colliers in Nelson, says locally based owner-occupiers are clamouring for bare land on which to design and build new premises.

Some 59 buyers recently contested 10 prime industrial brownfields sites in a newly-developed subdivision at Quarantine Rd marketed by Faulkner and Auckland-based colleague Paul Jarvie.

Ranging from 3000sq m to 2.3ha, the sites collectively netted nearly $25 million in unconditional sales — and took just a month.

In the 1950s the land was home to a large piggery but in more recent years has housed a number of sheds which have been leased by small owner-operators.

Faulkner says there were nine separate buyers from the logistics, construction, engineering and aquaculture sectors.

“We had massive interest across the board. Businesses are really doubling down on industrial property in Nelson. I don’t think we’ve ever seen the likes of it before — industrial land has always been very tightly held here.

“When this large block was released to the market it unleashed a whole new wave of demand from businesses seeking to expand and others wanting to design/build for their specific purposes.”

The project started with Patrick Fontein, a director of developer Studio D4, working closely with storage container company Boxman, which had been located on the site for 22 years. Boxman is expanding into the 2.3ha site.

Studio D4 and the Colliers brokers carried out considerable research into the needs of large industrial occupiers in Nelson, as input into the overall Studio D4 masterplan.

“We wanted to make sure we partnered with potential endusers to work out the best possible solutions for them. We listened carefully to various requests and that meant we were able to fine tune the masterplan so that when we went to the market we knew we had it right.

“And that certainly proved to be the case. The market went ballistic. All the work we’d done in advance enabled that to happen,” Faulkner says.

Quarantine Rd is one of the key arterial routes providing access to Nelson Airport and is close to the CBD.

Faulkner says that together with scarce supply, industrial operators are being buoyed by low interest rates.

“Businesses are really doubling down on industrial property in Nelson. I don’t think we’ve ever seen the likes of it before — industrial land has always been very tightly held here.”