Ten industrial sections from the Central Otago District Council’s latest land release near Cromwell have sold for around $3.4M.

A large proportion of the buyers of these and others in the 30-section development off Cemetery Road were local, according to a spokesperson for Colliers real estate agency who manage the project for the council(CODC).

In a statement Colliers said local investors were either relocating their businesses to the site or purchasing land for their own purposes rather than continuing to lease sites elsewhere.

The ten lots had been sold, subject to the issuing of titles, to small and medium size industrial and trade-related businesses.  Offers had been received on another 12 sections and were currently being evaluated.

The project was part of council’s strategic planning process, responding to and managing rapid growth in Cromwell, according to the statement.

Cromwell Industrial Estate is located beside the Cromwell Cemetery, near Highlands Motorsport Park.

“Being a major owner of development land on the fringe of the Cromwell urban area allowed CODC to respond to the market as needed.”

Industrial land in the area was selling for around $350sqm -$550sqm and sales at the site had been in line with this. The company say Cromwell is rapidly becoming the

distribution and logistics hub for the wider Central Otago area.

No decisions had been made on plans for the council-owned block adjacent to the site and the council had made no indication to Colliers, according to the statement, as

to whether a similar development would take place across Cemetery Road on the 52ha council-owned plot where  Central Wormworx, Otago Metals Central and Central

Otago Motorcycle Club were located.

The long-established worm farm and metal recycling businesses have been told their leases, expiring in 2023 and 2024 respectively, may not be renewed.

As previously reported by The Central App, CODC executive manager planning and environment, Louise van der Voort, said this block was being rezoned from a Rural

Resource Area into Industrial area as outlined in the Cromwell ‘Eye to the Future” Masterplan Spatial Framework.

“The Cromwell Community Board has not made any decisions on the development of the land. Decisions around leases are made to enable the Board to optimise

subdivision layout when considering development of the land in the future. If the land is occupied at the time of development that is likely to impede physical works such

as installation of infrastructure and internal roads.”