Ngai Tahu signs up to build $12m Turners 'supersite'

By Chris Hutching

Friday 25th June 2004

Ngai Tahu has struck a deal with Turners Auctions to build a $12 million "supersite" on vacant land over the railway line from the tribe's Tower Junction bulk retail centre.

Turners will lease the facility for 15 years and Ngai Tahu plans to retain ownership for now. It will cover 2.74ha, with the main auction building more than 7525sq m. The rental paid to Ngai Tahu will be "about $1 million" a year, suggesting a yield of about 9%.

The new site is being modeled on the supersites operated by Turners in Wellington and Auckland, which the company says are "very successful."

Features of the supersite include a test track so customers can testdrive cars without going on public roads, a custom-designed exhaust extract system, customer parking, two auction lanes operating at the same time, on-site cafe, vehicle grooming and reconditioning centre, dealer lounge and viewing room, and robust security systems.

The location is near one of Christchurch's most recently built and biggest bulk retail centres, relatively close to the central city on the former Addington Workshops site. Ngai Tahu has redeveloped the area within the past two years, with Bunnings becoming a key tenant and opening a large-format store to compete in the same market as the Mitre 10 franchise chain.

Ngai Tahu is understood to be in negotiations with a large-format retailer over another even bigger deal for a further development stage of the Tower Junction site.

Meanwhile, the Turners Auctions share price rose 5c to $5.20 on the news (which compares to the share price 12 months ago of $3.15). Turners Auctions is the single-largest seller of motor vehicles in New Zealand, employing 375 staff and carrying out auctions to sell more than 150,000 motor vehicles annually.

From 1967, Turners Auctions was a subsidiary of 106-year-old Turners & Growers Group and in April 2001 was separated and in October 2002 listed on the Stock Exchange.

Turners Auctions chief executive Jeff Wesley said the company had been planning several strategic developments. This development was expected to be completed by mid-2005. The supersite would provide better facilities than the overcrowded site in Moorhouse Ave. Turners had so many cars it is storing them in five separate locations around the city. The new site had room for 850 vehicles and the expansion to two auction lanes could see hundreds of vehicles auctioned on the same day, Mr Wesley said.

Bob Davison of Bayleys Canterbury negotiated the lease and said it was one of the largest industrial leases concluded in Christchurch in recent years.

The property's profile will be lifted by the proposed Moorhouse Ave deviation with a flyover directly overlooking the Turners building running across the railway line and linking up with Blenheim Rd.

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