ALDEN WILLIAMS/FAIRFAX NZ
The Fiordland Community Board has sold industrial-zoned land in Te Anau, Southland. (File photo)
The diggers have started earthworks at a new industrial subdivision in the Southland tourist town of Te Anau, with 10 of the 33 sections under contract.
The industrial-zoned land – part of the Luxmore subdivision – was sold by the Fiordland Community Board in late September.
Southland District Council property services manager Kevin McNaught said the 3.99 hectare industrial site between Sandy Brown Rd and Caswell Rd sold for $1.7m plus GST.
The buyer was Luxmore Developments Limited. The company’s sole director was Kim Edward Hollows, of Te Anau, according to the New Zealand Companies Office website.
The Luxmore subdivision included a residential portion which was separated from the industrial area by a council reserve.
McNaught said the residential portion of the land, also owned by the community board, was still under contract and wasn’t due to settle until September 2024.
Te Anau’s PGG Wrightson Real Estate business development manager Sandra Macnamara said 10 of the 33 industrial sections were under contract to people from Te Anau, wider Southland and Otago.
Some of the sections were earmarked for trade contractors, she said.
“I think it’s fantastic for Te Anau, we need more industrial.
“It’s going to be an upmarket subdivision, no car bodies, smart and tidy.”
Macnamara said they were taking registrations of interest for stage one of the residential development, which consisted of 26 sections ranging in size from 450m² to 855m².
Te Anau had a desperate shortage of homes for rent, she said.
Fiordland Community Board chairperson Diane Holmes said the sale of the industrial-zoned land, and eventual sale of the residential-zoned land, would give the community board cash flow for projects in the future.
Robyn Edie/Stuff
Fiordland Jet co-owner Chris Adams is concerned tourists may not get a quality experience if businesses can’t attract enough staff. (Video first published May 2022)
The money had enabled the board to pay off the $680,000 Te Anau Airport Manapouri loan and spend $171,000 for Great South to drive airport revenue and reduce the airport’s funding shortfall.
The paying off of the airport loan reduced the principal and interest Fiordland ratepayers were forking out, so the community board’s portion of the annual rates wouldn’t go up, she said.
The Te Anau Basin development plan document, aimed at enhancing the area as a place to live, work and visit, would give the board a good steer on where to spend more of the money for the region’s betterment, she said.
Holmes said she hoped the houses eventually built in the residential subdivision wouldn’t all be converted into Airbnb accommodation, given the town’s rental shortage.
