8 | Manawatū: Central Economic Development Agency REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT T T Richard Loader Location drives Manawatū freight hub Te Utanganui will be a multi-modal hub, embracing air, rail, road, and inland ports, encompassing Palmerston North Airport and the existing north-eastern industrial zone “Every piece of freight that currently goes on rail through the North Island has to go through here, whether it is going North, South, East or West.” While the concept for a major multi-modal distribution hub in Manawatū’s city of Palmerston North might seem an audacious vision, it is already a reality, and that reality is Te Utanganui. The hub’s name of Te Utanganui was gifted to the project in 2021 by Rangitāne o Manawatū, and refers to the concept of an inland port, of transient goods arriving by sea, sky and land, and then out again. The concept of trade flowing through the Manawatū is certainly not new. Early Māori used the Manawatū River to trade up and down the region, and in the 1930s the grand idea of using Palmerston North as a freight hub for the centre of New Zealand was referred to in city promotional material. While hovering over the decades, it has been in the last ten years that the idea really gained wings, finally taking flight 2019/2020. Te Utanganui will be a multi-modal distribution and warehousing hub, embracing air, rail, road, and inland ports, encompassing Palmerston North Airport and the existing north-eastern industrial zone. Overall, when complete, it will cover somewhere between 500 – 600 hectares. The planned new KiwiRail Regional Freight Hub itself is around 170 hectares. The finished development will be on a par with Hamilton’s Ruakura Superhub and Christchurch’s Rolleston South Island distribution centre in terms of scale, with the three hubs complementing each other. Passionate advocates of Te Utanganui Central New Zealand Distribution Hub is CEDA — Central Economic Development Agency. A Council-controlled organisation, with the Palmerston North City and Manawatū District Councils its shareholders, CEDA’s purpose is to drive and facilitate the creation of economic wealth in Manawatū and beyond. CEDA’s mandate is broad and includes supporting existing businesses, and attracting inward investment and new business to the region that could benefit from Manawatū’s geography. A key area of focus is the distribution and logistics sector with Te Utanganui a key enabler in this work. CEDAs Chief Executive Jerry Shearman says a key driver for Te Utanganui is the region’s central location. “Palmerston North is already inside the network for freight distribution in New Zealand,” says Jerry. “Every piece of freight that currently goes on rail through the North Island has to go through here, whether it is going North, South, East or West. “So, Te Utanagnui is already here with the basic building blocks in place. We have quite large logistics and distribution centres inside Te Utanganui already including Toyota New Zealand, Primary Connect, which is the rebranded Countdown, and we have the airport which is one of only three in the country that is consented for 24/7 air freight. Australian Defence Apparel is already operating out of temporary premises while their new facility is being built within Te Utanganui, so, we’re now working on finding more designated space for additional large-scale warehousing.” Significant private and public investment is already committed to the region, with eight billion dollars worth of transport infrastructure either inside or supporting Te Utanganui underway over the next decade. “The jewel in the crown of course is the planned KiwiRail Regional Freight Hub,” says Jerry. “When added to Waka Kotahi’s Te Ahu a Tūranga: Manawatū-Tararua Highway and Ōtaki to North of Levin Expressway, we have the strategic ingredients needed. Once we have the planned regional freight ring road in place, it will reinforce our position as the third node of distribution and logistics in New Zealand.” Taking a front and centre seat, CEDA’s role in Te Utanganui is to provide the conduit and glue to bring the various and many projects together, enable each of the project leads to understand what is going on in each other’s world, so they are not operating as silos in a vacuum. “We have a governance group structure of key players including mana whenua, KiwiRail, the Manawatū District Council, Palmerston North City Council, Waka Kotahi, Napier Port, Centre Port and the Airport. “We have those enabling, ‘what’s coming up conversations’, so each of the groups can support each other to get their projects moving. We also have a significant role in attracting investment into Te Utanganui. Outside of KiwiRail, which has its own team, we are the driver for investment opportunities.” Describing Te Utanganui as a classic economic pillar project, Jerry says the multi-modal hub will take 30 years to complete, with the release of land timed over that period, sliding up and down depending on demand. “One of the projects will be the expansion of the North East Industrial Zone to provide a larger footprint. There’s also the Ruapehu Aeropark, which is Palmerston North Airports’ own expansion of industrial land, and discussions are underway in respect to the potential rebuild of the airport terminal. “Then we have the Palmerston North Integrated Transport Initiative, with the regional freight ring road being the end prize, and a significant number of related roading projects, some of which are already in progress. “The Kawakawa Industrial Precinct in Feilding will see growth as well, because of their better fit for some industries such as wet production and primary related industries. “The Manawatū Inland Port at Longburn will also take wet production, so the region is a well-oiled machine with the various cogs complementing and synergising for the greater good.” Jerry references the feel good movie ‘Field of Dreams’ and actor Kevin Costner’s famous line, ‘if you build it, people will come’, as an analogy for Te Utanganui. He says enquiries are being fielded on a weekly basis from significantly large investment pipelines. “They will bring significant employment to the region. Te Utanganui’s growing infrastructure will be like a lightning rod attracting other businesses to the region. “The population growth of the region is projected to be strong, and we’re doing some broad planning around what the workforce will need over the entire length of the project, and that includes the people building it, and the people to staff it. “We are working with UCOL-Te Pukenga and the National Driver Training Centre to work out what we’re going to need in terms of construction workers and project managers through to people with forklift licenses and distribution centre skills.”
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