Te Ara Commercial Park has board support to proceed
Strong Expressions of Interest from commercial buyers are the reason Te Ara Commercial Park has the backing of its board. The level and spread of interest across the scheme gave the board of Te Ara Commercial Limited the confidence to proceed with a private plan change to rezone the Rolleston site from residential to commercial.
We thank everyone who has registered and signed an EOI. Your interest is what moved this project forward.
Eliot Sinclair has been appointed to lead the plan change. As the project’s planning and surveying team, they will prepare the application and work with Selwyn District Council through the process.
Rolleston is growing fast, and heading for city status
Selwyn is the fastest growing district in New Zealand. Statistics New Zealand figures show the district adding about 3,200 residents in the year to June 2024, growth of 3.9%, ahead of every other district in the country. Rolleston is the centre of that growth.
It is not slowing down. Selwyn District Council expects Rolleston to grow by another 40 per cent over the next 25 years. Council planners have described the town as on its way to becoming a city, with 50,000 residents the usual threshold for city status, and Rolleston is already one of the fastest growing urban areas in the country.
More people means more demand for everything that serves them: trades and trade supply, healthcare, childcare, food and retail, professional services, storage and light industrial. Businesses follow households, and the households are arriving faster than the commercial land to serve them.
A gap in the market
We are not aware of any commercially zoned sections currently available in Rolleston for owner-occupiers and investors to buy. Businesses that want to own their premises, and investors who want to build and lease, are left with few or no options. Many are forced to lease, or to look further afield, even though their customers are in Rolleston.
Te Ara is designed to fill that gap. It is a 4.4 hectare freehold site, planned as a commercial park with a range of lot sizes and road frontage, with sections sold to buyers who want to own, build and operate in a growing town. Our Expression of Interest process has shown there is real demand for exactly this kind of land.
What this means
The plan change is now underway, led by Eliot Sinclair.
Expressions of Interest remain open. If you want to be part of Te Ara, you can register through this site.
Once the plan change is confirmed, EOIs convert to Sale and Purchase Agreements, with offers made to EOI holders in order of receipt.
Lot sizes and boundaries remain indicative and may change as the scheme plan is finalised.
A plan change is a statutory process and its outcome is not guaranteed. This decision does not change the terms of the EOI, which does not oblige either party to proceed to a sale.
EOI holders will receive regular updates as the plan change progresses.
