The first major tenant for the new billion-dollar The Sands Town Centre development in Pāpāmoa East has been revealed.
Bluehaven Group Chief Executive Nathan York announced Foodstuffs’ New World as the first and cornerstone tenant for The Sands, that is part of Tauranga’s largest and fastest growing suburban area.
“New World – a New Zealand-owned and operated full-service supermarket – was an obvious choice as the first major tenant for The Sands,” said York.
“A major supermarket is a key and essential destination for our flourishing community, which begins construction in Q4 of this year and will be open by Christmas 2024.
Lindsay Rowles, General Manager of Membership and Property at Foodstuffs North Island says: “We’re excited to be bringing the fast-growing Pāpāmoa community a brand-new New World. The locality surrounding The Sand’s development makes it a fantastic location for one of our stores.
All Foodstuffs stores are proudly locally-owned and operated, this means we can tailor our offering to best suit the community. The new store will be run by locals and will create 180 new jobs in the area.
The total investment for the initial development stages of The Sands is $113 million, and that will enable the construction of over 20,000 square metres, involving 10 major tenancies of new commercial space in Pāpāmoa East. This work will have an initial economic impact of 481 jobs from construction and will generate $72 million in GDP, and an ongoing annual economic impact from operation of 576 jobs and will generate a further $48 million in GDP.
“In addition to the New World supermarket, we are also finalising negotiations with a number of other national operators and will be excited to announce these future tenants in the coming months,” said York. That investment in key roading and infrastructure was critical to the ongoing progress of The Sands and the extensive housing programme undertaken by Bluehaven Group. York also noted there are over 200 new homes currently under construction in Pāpāmoa, making it the most active residential development area in Tauranga, and Bluehaven Group has a further 2,000 residential units consented for future house construction.
