| 37 T T Virginia Wright Flexible workspaces The workshops Matakana are designed for a range of industrial/commercial uses, such as warehouses, trade showrooms, storage and manufacturing. Conrad Properties: The Workshops Matakana “There’ll be a few makers and creators manufacturing anything you can think of that has the Matakana brand on it such as high-end goods like furniture, honey and wine.” REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT Conrad Properties is a New Zealand owned private company which has been doing its core business of developing unit titles in the property market for the last 25 years. They are well known in Auckland for developing a wide range of apartments, townhouses, retail and commercial units in the CBD and inner suburbs. It was when the first wave of lockdowns hit in New Zealand and around the world that they turned their attention to the sort of industrial workshop developments that they could see working well in Australia where units were individually owned. “Small scale industrial units that didn’t need to be owned by corporate businesses, they could equally be bought by individuals, sole traders, and small businesses. “They offer flexibility for somebody to operate from, or maybe have a small team working from, but also somewhere to store goods or vehicles or whatever it might be whether it’s for distribution or elements for manufacturing or just private effects,” explains Conrad Properties Sales Director Thomas McAlister. Given New Zealand’s high degree of self-employment the concept looked like a good fit, and its popularity was soon proven with two successful industrial/commercial workshop developments in Mt. Wellington. “We brought them to the market in 2020 and they sold fantastically well going to local owner/occupiers, local businesses, a few investors, as well as people using them for personal effects. We’ve got several where they store the likes of an E-type Jag, Porsche or classic motorbikes along with a small workshop and a pool table upstairs with a beer fridge,” explains Thomas. More recently they bought the last block of land zoned as Light Industrial in Matakana Village on which they’re building something similar, albeit more highly specced and therefore at a higher price point. While Matakana’s a relatively small village it attracts a disproportionate amount of interest due to the fact that it’s little more than an hour’s drive from Auckland now that a new stretch of motorway makes the drive a lot easier than it used to be. Even though the Matakana Workshop development is on land zoned light industrial indications so far are that it’s trending commercial explains Thomas. “There’ll be a few makers and creators manufacturing anything you can think of that has the Matakana brand on it such as high-end goods like furniture, honey and wine. “People love Matakana and there’s a lot of wealth out there so people want a commercial outlet to capitalize on all those people who do a day-trip from Auckland to the Matakana Markets. 57 new front doors in the village that allow businesses of all sorts will give a lot more people the freedom to operate from there.” As a by-product of bordering a residential zone and backing on to the Matakana River Conrad Properties had a lot of hoops to jump through to ensure that their design would complement the surroundings. With consents taking longer than usual to come through Thomas is grateful that the builders, GN Construction, are currently ahead of schedule which he notes is a rare thing. Working closely with Riley Consultants and Formis Architects they’re building units which get their character from tall pitched rooves and plenty of glass. Many have courtyards backing onto the reserve and once the landscaping is done with planting and public seating areas, and the café is underway, Matakana Workshops will have a bespoke charm and character very different to a more conventional industrial estate. Riley Consultants Ltd is a New Zealand owned multi-disciplinary engineering consultancy, with offices in Auckland and Christchurch. They have been growing their specialist capabilities in civil, water resources, geotechnical and environmental engineering for 40 years. They have local, national, and international clients all across New Zealand and the Pacific Region with projects both residential and commercial, covering greenfield and brownfield sites, from large-scale earth dams to intensive land development projects. While land development projects typically involve their civil, geotechnical and contamination teams, it was primarily their civil engineering expertise that was called on for the Matakana Workshop project with land development specialist Luke Gordon running the team. Luke has 20 years’ experience, he’s a Principal Civil Engineer, serves as a Board Director, and is well used to assuming the responsibilities that come with developing the infrastructure needed to support large scale developments. “Earthworks, stormwater, water supply and wastewater or three waters as we call them. Basically, the above and below ground infrastructure outside the building footprint needed to service the site including how the site is relevelled to suit the intended use,” says Luke. Being right next to the Matakana River meant site-specific flood modelling carried out by Riley’s water resources team came into play when designing the units to be resilient to whatever nature might throw at them. “The modelling proved useful for accurately quantifying An Expanding Presence the flood level and extent, thus allowing the site to be developed to its maximum potential and in a cost-effective way,” says Luke. The Matakana Workshops present their own challenges unique to the area. No reticulated (town) water supply means their water comes off the roof. A new government agency “Tau Mata Arowai” came into being after contaminated water in Havelock caused illness and death and brings with it a regulatory framework specific to water for commercial use not being sourced from a town supply. “It’s about collecting and filtering the roofwater and storing it in a safe manner, before pumping it through a specifically designed treatment system, making sure we have storage and enough supply for all the units. There was extensive consultation around filtration, the UV Systems, the pumping system and how much storage would be needed to allow for fluctuations in rainfall, times of high demand and so on. We’ve got 77,000 litres of underground storage tank capacity,” explains Luke. A further 90,000 litres of fire-fighting water storage capacity is stored underground, while complying with the council’s stream erosion protection measures means a stormwater underground attenuation tank capacity of 240,00 litres, designed to ensure excess water enters the stream at a trickle for most storm events. With the development due to be completed early 2025, it won’t be long before all of Riley’s expertise swings into working order as owners, clients and customers make full use of what the Matakana Workshops have to offer.
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