Hon. Wayne Guppy Breaks Ground At $100+ Million Blue Mountains Campus

The Hon. Wayne Guppy, Mayor of Upper Hutt, broke first ground at Blue Mountains Campus this morning, celebrating the commencement of this major new commercial development for the Wellington region.

Developed by Willis Bond, the $100+ million campus will be the region’s first purpose-built resilient commercial hub. It is set to generate more than $250 million1 of economic activity, leading to more jobs and greater opportunities.

Located on Ward Street, Upper Hutt, the five hectare park-style campus is designed to complement the Wellington CBD. It offers up to 36,000 square metres of Green Star and NABERSNZ-rated commercial and retail space across a mix of strengthened existing buildings, and new commercial buildings.

KiwiRail has already secured a 20-year lease for 2,800 square metres including the construction of a state-of-the-art train control room.

Willis Bond Project Director David McGuinness, says the groundbreaking is a key milestone for the major regional project.

“We are delighted to be officially celebrating that onsite works are truly underway and that major national tenant KiwiRail has recognised the campus is a sound choice in terms of its regional centrality, resilience, sustainable design and outstanding employee offering.

“We also anticipate being able to make further major tenant announcements within the next few weeks – it’s very exciting to see more organisations preparing to join the campus.”

Designed to strengthen the Wellington region’s commercial profile following the Kaikoura earthquake, the campus boasts a high resilience profile, with low shaking and liquefaction risk, no risk of flooding, tsunami or slope failure, strong roading and public transport options and robust infrastructure and back-up options.

The campus also offers a unique proposition, where tenants can design and build bespoke facilities for any number of uses, including offices, data centres, laboratories and light industrial uses such as food production and brewing operations.

Equally, with its comfortable, sustainable modern and modernised buildings, park-like setting, proximity to Wallaceville train station, on-site café, end-of-trip options, running loop, neighbouring childcare centre and further wellbeing offerings planned for later stages, the campus is designed to be a place people want to work.

The campus will be delivered in four stages with preliminary works for the 6,000 square metre first stage now underway. This initial stage will strengthen and refurbish the existing 4,700 square metre Buddle Building and deliver KiwiRail’s bespoke 1,300 square metre train control room, ready to occupy by December 2022.

Stage 2 will develop the two heritage buildings on site, ready for occupation in early 2023 and stages 3 and 4 will deliver modern, low-rise timber-framed buildings later in 2023. Another 20,000 square metres of accommodation can be built in later stages.

“We’re keen to talk to private and public organisations looking for flexible and resilient new premises in the region, as well as retail and amenity providers that see an opportunity to support these businesses and the wider local community,” concludes McGuinness.

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