Porirua MegaCentre
Titahi Bay Road, PORIRUA
Large format Retail development
It's hard to believe that retail shopping on a bulk or mega format was a completely untried phenomenon in New Zealand some 10 years ago. Conventional thinking at the time favoured department stores and small retailers, with there being no large scale retail developments outside Auckland.
Land Equity therefore saw an immense opportunity in the bulk retail trend that was sweeping the retail landscape overseas, and research of market conditions told us that the Wellington region could support one or more large-format shopping centres.
The challenge was in finding enough space to execute the idea. With little or no large vacant land available in Wellington city, our search led us to the attributes of Porirua City. At the time Porirua was an untapped region, but was favoured by superb motorway access and plenty of vacant, well priced land. Eleven separate sites were purchased and combined to create an area for the large-scale centre. Everything was executed on a mega scale, from the car parking needs to the vast footprints of some 23 superstores totaling in excess of 65,000 square metres of retail.
When completed in 1999, the Porirua MegaCentre opened with a who's who of major retailers, including The Warehouse, Spotlight, Noel Lemming and the region's first Harvey Norman superstore. Shoppers responded in unheard-of numbers, sealing the centre's success. Time has shown that the concept has longevity, with thousands of shoppers visiting the MegaCentre each week, injecting an estimated $200 million in retail spending into the Porirua economy each year.