Home HQ Developers Challenge Retail Planning Strategy

Retail developers Charter Hall, which purchased the Nelson Park site to build large format retail destination “Home HQ”, has made two separate applications to Hastings District Council.

Firstly, Charter Hall has applied to divide the largest anchor building, originally intended to house The Warehouse adjacent to the railway line, into five 2550sqm blocks.

Hastings Mayor Lawrence Yule says Charter Hall is required to make best efforts to work with The Warehouse, which had indicated it would fill most of the building.

“The original plan was always to accommodate the Warehouses’ needs. It is not up to council to make the development stack-up commercially, but council would obviously like to see the best result possible.”

The re-zoning of Nelson Park required stores be a minimum floor size of 1000sqm.

The second application relates to a separate property on the eastern boundary of Home HQ, the former Whakatu Coolstore site, which Charter Hall intends to extend the Home HQ development onto.

The company has applied to build eight stores there under the 1000sqm minimum, with several as small as 400sqm.

It was anticipated that large format retail would eventually occur on this site but the site is not zoned for smaller stores. Charter Hall is legally entitled to apply for a resource consent to depart from the district plan.

“This application goes completely against the council’s strategic retail planning. It is our clear intention for the large format retail of Home HQ to be the eastern boundary of the CBD, with a mix of large and medium retailers between there and Heretaunga Street - not creeping retail to the east which competes with the CBD,” Mayor Yule says.

Council has a number of options for how the application will be dealt with.

The Council has the option of hearing submissions and deciding on the application itself, or delegating that role to independent commissioners.

Either way, if the applicant or any submitter is unhappy with the decision made, they can appeal to the Environment Court and the Court will have the final say on the proposal.
It will be several weeks at least until a decision on notification will be made by council.