The Star: June 15, 2023

Latest Canterbury news at starnews.co.nz
Thursday June 15 2023 The Star
NEWS 7
Biggest project yet for developer
• By Tony Simons
PROPERTY developer Williams
Corporation is planning its
biggest housing project to date, a
307-unit complex on the former
Gough, Gough & Hamer site in
Hornby.
The developer has signed up
to buy the 5.7 hectare Amyes
Rd industrial site and plans to
build the units in 78 separate
buildings, alongside 41 storage
units, in what may also be the
biggest brownfields (industrial
land) residential development
undertaken in Christchurch.
“I am not aware of any brownfield
development with more
units,” said city council head of
consents John Higgins.
The property, with a rateable
value over $17m, is occupied by
Terra Cat, formerly the Gough
Group before the business was
sold to Malaysian-based Sime
Darby Berhad in 2019.
The site was then sold
separately to another company,
24 Amyes Road Ltd, before Terra
Cat announced plans to move
to a new site at the Waterloo
Industrial Park in Islington next
year.
Williams Corporation filed
a resource consent application
in September to develop the
site and has registered a caveat
against the title to protect
HOUSING: The site of the proposed 307-unit residential
development in Hornby, bounded by Amyes Rd and
Branston St. PHOTO: COLLIERS NEW ZEALAND ​
its interests.
24 Amyes Road Ltd director
Richard Bell declined to comment.
Williams Corporation coowner
Matthew Horncastle also
refused to comment on his plans.
“I do not talk to the media,
sorry,” said Horncastle.
Environmental consultants
have told The Star the consenting
process for the project is likely to
cost at least $100,000, and may
be considerably more by the time
it is completed.
The 1746-page consent
document shows most of the 307
residential units will be one or
two bedrooms. Some will have
garages, but parking will be
limited and a third of the units
will have no off-street parking.
The main access will be off
Amyes Rd with secondary access
off Branston St.
Government social housing
agency Kāinga Ora told The
Star it has not been offered the
development for consideration.
The land will require
earthworks and remediation,
but the consent application
asserts there are no special
circumstances necessitating
public consultation.
The city council said the
application could be non-notified
or notified, which is a decision
yet to be made by a planning
commissioner.
Shift end of era
A move next year by
machinery company
Terra Cat, formerly Gough,
Gough and Hamer, to
a new home in the
Waterloo Industrial Park in
Islington will be the end
of an era.
The family-owned
Gough, Gough & Hamer
was based at the Amyes
Rd site in Hornby for
nearly 50 years.
It was founded 94
years ago by Edgar
Gough, Harry Hamer
and Tracy Gough, to
supply electrical goods,
before becoming one of
New Zealand’s biggest
earthmoving machinery
companies.
In 1932, it secured
the rights to represent
Caterpillar Tractors,
becoming the biggest
Caterpillar business
outside of the United
States just six years later.
The Canterbury branch
of Gough, Gough &
Hamer was officially
opened on the Amyes Rd
site in April 1971, followed
by its general office four
years later.
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