The1.528-hectare block on the western edge of Morrinsville sits strategically between the town’s residential portion on one side, with homes on the boundary, and the start of the town’s industrial precinct on the other, neighbouring an existing large warehousing and storage yard premises.

The property is located directly beside Morrinsville’s established Keith Camp Industrial Estate. Matamata Piako District Council's Town Strategies 2013-2033 Morrinsville document spotlights a demand for the development of 13 hectares of business-sustaining land in and around Morrinsville by 2033.

The report anticipates that if demand for industrial land within Morrisville continues at current rates, supply would start to run out within 12 years.

The planning white paper also identifies that the council is keen to minimise the encroachment of industrial precincts onto farmland – and would rather that development be concentrated within the town’s existing urban-zoned ‘footprint’, particularly in the vicinity of existing rail links and major transport routes.

In a move designed to meet at least some of this forecast demand for industrial land in Morrinsville, the 1.528-hectare rectangular-shaped freehold landholding at 65 Avenue Road in Morrinsville, also known as Snell Street, is now being marketed for sale at auction on March 10 through Bayleys Hamilton.

Salesperson Josh Smith said the land for sale at 65 Avenue Road totally meets all of the council’s requirements highlighted in Town Strategies 2013-2033 Morrinsville masterplan.

“The size of the section - along with its flat topography and extensive street frontage - mean that subject to council consents, it is capable of housing any permutation of premises,” said Smith.

“Such configuration options range from say one or two substantial warehousing or industrial buildings, or it could just as easily be split up into multiple smaller sites to sustain the likes of terraced tradie workshops and a storage warehousing hub.

“As industrial land values rise in Hamilton’s northern and southern urban boundaries - and space availability concurrently decreases - a growing number of companies are looking for more cost-effective alternatives in the satellite townships of Te Awamutu, Morrinsville, and Cambridge.”

As a rural services township with a population of some 7,806 residents according to the 2018 census, Matamata’s businesses derive much of their income from the dairying, equine and cropping sectors of primary industry, along with tourism linked to the Lord of the Rings Hobbiton attraction.

Large-scale residential property development company Lockerbie Estate this month announced plans to build an additional 1,200 new homes in its burgeoning Morrinsville master-planned subdivision – on top of the 350 homes it has already sold in the locale over the past three years. Lockerbie Estate is also planned to contain a retirement village, café, and purpose-built childcare facility.

Submissions for the plan have been submitted to rezone 77.2-hectares of land for the next phase of its expansion project.

A detail regional demographic report prepared by economic forecasting firm Infometrics last year predicts that at least 960 houses are needed to meet expected growth in Morrinsville through to 2038. Matamata-Piako District Council is looking to adopt high population growth strategies and policies to accommodate the forecast population boom.

Among considerations the council will factor in is the concurrent development of social infrastructure such roads and footpaths, as well as the capability to expand industrial and commercial services needed to sustain a higher population.

Smith said the expansion of Morrinsville’s industrial precinct around the existing Keith Camp Industrial Estate – encompassing development of the currently bare Snell Street site – would work symbiotically with the growth of the town’s residential property pool.

“Workers need homes to live in. And residents need work. So the expansion of Lockerbie Estate is intricately linked to what will happen from a commercial and industrial perspective at Avenue Road along similar time frames,” he said.

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