BOOM TOWN

Booming Hornby is to get a huge $400 million business park.

The Waterloo Business Park was unveiled by Earthquake Recovery Minister Gerry Brownlee on Thursday night.

The project is a joint venture between John Sax, of Auckland-based Southpark Corporation Ltd, and Inky Tulloch's Southland-based investment company. Waterloo Business Park is a new generation 114ha business park, bounded by Pound and Waterloo Rds.

It is one of the biggest in New Zealand and the same size as Highbrook, Auckland's largest master-planned business site.

The owners are creating a fully landscaped business park complete with a central hub and plaza. It will feature fountains, boulevard style roads, attractive outdoor areas and amenities such as a gym and cafes.

Work on the $30 million infrastructure is set to begin later this month, with the sprawling site to be developed in stages over several years.

The site is TC1 land with the ensuing benefits around foundations when building.

Mr Sax, whose Auckland company is the largest holder of vacant land within Penrose, Mt Wellington and the Onehunga areas, said the Christchurch market presented immense opportunities for developers and investors.

"I believe that developers are really looking anew at Christchurch, which will go through the most incredible growth over the next decade. The attention is certainly on opportunities in the city.

"We are absolutely confident of business growth in Christchurch and Waterloo Business Park is designed to meet the burgeoning demand for warehousing and logistics as well as light industry and manufacturing as the rebuild gains momentum," Mr Sax said.

"Businesses are crying out for quality industrial space and Hornby has always been at the forefront of preferred options for firms. Obviously since the earthquakes, the demand has soared especially as some other industrial areas are deemed undesirable forreinvestment.

"Hornby's importance as a distribution hub is growing by the day backed by its easy access to the major roading networks linking north and south, plus to the port and airport. There is also the adjacent railway line which may ultimately give some lots at Waterloo Business Park direct rail access."

Mr Sax estimated construction of Waterloo Business Park would cost up to $400 million, and that 5000 people would be employed by companies within the complex on completion.

"That's in addition to the many hundreds of jobs created in the development and construction phases."

He said Waterloo Business Park would offer a wide range of opportunities for business development ranging from larger scale industrial and distribution uses on the bigger sites, to a variety of more intensive uses on the smaller central sites.

Sax said the development would be markedly different from any other business parks in Christchurch.

"We are spending a lot of money to make sure this is an absolutely premium development. Business parks can be pretty arid and grey; we are paying close attention to master planning, including water features, green park like courtyards and paved boulevards. It will also have a network of cycle and running tracks."

A sales and administration office will soon be opened on site.