The 3.175-hectare landholding at 45 Keepa Road north-west of the town is immediately adjacent to State Highway 30 leading in to and out of Whakatane, and is zoned for light industrial use under the Whakatane District Council plan.

The triangular-shaped former livestock grazing block is now being marketed for sale by tender through Bayleys Whakatane, with tenders closing at 4pm on September 11. Salespeople Larissa Reid and Rhys Mischefski said the freehold property was situated just a few hundred metres from the junction with State Highway 30 – Whakatane’s main arterial route.

“The Keepa Road block is the ‘text book’ definition of rural/urban boundary (RUB) land - bordered by properties sustaining a variety of uses – from pastoral grazing and cropping activity on one side, through to retail and light industrial tenancies, and a potential residential development on its other boundaries,” Ms Reid said.

“Diagonally behind the Keepa Road bare block is a range of industrial tenancies sustaining the town’s automotive sector, along with the Whakatane branch of national building supplies firm ITM.

“Around the corner is The Hub Whakatane ‘big box’ retail shopping centre – containing such large footprint tenancies as Harvey Norman, Farmers, Rebel Sports, Briscoes, Bunnings, and Kmart.

“Meanwhile on the Keepa Road eastern frontage, a large strip of land adjacent to the Whakatane River contains a large stormwater pumping station and water holding area which have been constructed specifically to manage stormwater from what could eventually be a residential enclave.

“Whakatane’s rural/urban belt is stretching ever further away from the town’s central business district – as seen with the creation of The Hub Whakatane.”

Ms Reid said that under the council’s light industrial zooming, the Keepa Road site could be subdivided into multiple smaller individual sections which could either be sold off individually as greenfield plots, or developed and sold down as design-and-build units as part of a master-planned hub.

The Whakatane site for sale has extensive street frontage onto 45 Keepa Road, and is bordered on its northern aspect by a thin strip of land with the Kopeopeo Canal flowing through it.

“This natural landscape buffer zone is ready made for sustaining any additional land works referenced in the Whakatane District Council’s 2017 district plan, where light industrial zoned land and premises have to be screened from public view by either two-metres high fencing or natural features, mounds, and vegetation plantings,” Ms Reid said.

“Mature trees planted along the elevated banks of the Kopeopeo Canal already deliver much of that required visual screening to the property in an environmentally-friendly and aesthetically pleasing manner.”