An Auckland company which has bought 22ha of industrial land north of Oamaru is planning to subdivide and then offer lots for sale.
National truck and trailer-rental company TR Group has a conditional contract to buy the land from Japanese company Nikken Seil.
The contract becomes unconditional on October 7 and TR Group managing director Andrew Carpenter sees no impediment, at this stage, to the sale going through.
"We don't expect any problems, although there are no guarantees obviously," he said this week.
Nikken Seil bought the land in 2001 to develop a $20 million business park, but put it on the market in June.
Mr Carpenter said TR Group had had discussions with the Waitaki District Council about subdividing the site, based on a plan already approved for Nikken Seil.
That envisaged 19 lots.
However, Mr Carpenter said the final subdivision plan could depend on inquiries from prospective buyers, with sales being handled by Colliers International, agent for the Nikken sale.
"It's quite a big area of land, so it would need to be subdivided," he said.
One thing the company wanted to do early on was to create access to the land off State Highway 1, a proposal which has approval.
TR Group has eight rental outlets, including two in the South Island at Christchurch and Dunedin.
At this stage it had no immediate plan to open a branch in Oamaru on the land it had bought, but Mr Carpenter said the block had enough land for such a purpose if needed in the future.
Mr Carpenter said the company had done similar property developments in the past.
The council was also enthusiastic about the prospect of development north of Oamaru, Mr Carpenter said.
The council owns land north of the Nikken site and another Auckland company, Euroclass Design, has a site north of that on the corner of TY Duncan Rd.
Both the council and Euroclass want their land rezoned for business development.
Nikken's principal shareholder, Dr Hirotomo Ochi, who died in October 2005, bought Teschemakers, the former Catholic girls' boarding school, for about $500,000 in 2000.
From that sprang the idea of the business park, opposite the Oamaru racecourse and between SH 1 and the main-trunk railway line, and the purchase of about 500ha of North Otago farmland to produce organic foods for processing.
