Why this $42m super steel site was built in a construction downturn

A new 15,000 square-metre steel warehouse in Drury, south of Auckland, can store twice the amount of steel used to build the Auckland harbour bridge.

The $42 million site was designed and built for the privately-owned steel importing business Asmuss, as it prepares to provide products to major infrastructure projects in the North Island.

“We are confident that the market will pick up again, there’s just so much infrastructure investment required in New Zealand,” Asmuss Steel & Flow Control chief executive Dean Brown told Markets with Madison.

“We want to be ready.”

But the market was tough currently, he said, and likely would be for another year.

“We’re on the bottom, we’re waiting for it to pick up.”

The steel stacked in the warehouse was pre-purchased stock and was yet to be sold to projects, but Brown was confident it would be in demand eventually.

“Asmuss has been around for 100 years, we’ve weathered many cycles, this we see as just another cycle and you’ve just got to hold your nerve.”

Steel importer Asmuss has leased a new purpose-built 15,000 square-metre warehouse facility in Drury, south of Auckland. Photo / Ben Dickens - NZ Herald

Asmuss was started in 1920 by Henry Asmuss. It imports steel beams and pipes from mills around the world, including from China, Taiwan, Thailand, South Korea and Australia.

Its products have been behind some of the country’s most significant builds, including the Marsden Point former oil refinery, the Waikato River hydro dams owned by Mercury, Meridian’s Huntly Power Station and the Wellington waterfront stadium.

Source - NZ Herald

New South Auckland logistics facility to support future infrastructure projects

Source - Exporter Today

A new multimillion dollar green logistics facility in South Auckland is set to boost access to steel construction materials needed for New Zealand’s major infrastructure and renewable energy projects.

Latest Government data shows more than $120 billion has been forecast to be spent on infrastructure by the Crown, Crown entities and KiwiRail over the next five years.

The investment is designed to address New Zealand’s infrastructure deficit and prepare the country for future challenges, including population growth and climate change. Key areas of investment include transport, regional infrastructure, resilience and emergency preparedness, public buildings and schools.

Dean Brown, CEO of Asmuss Group, says with over 1,400 infrastructure projects valued at $10 million or more planned in the coming years, improving the construction industry’s supply chain capacity will be critical to the efficient delivery of these projects.

He says the new $25 million, 15,400m2 purpose-built logistics facility at Drury South Crossing can store over 12,000 tonnes of steel, around 2.1 times the steel volume used in the Auckland Harbour Bridge.

“Most of New Zealand’s structural steel needs are met by overseas suppliers and developing the capability to manage the rapid distribution of large volumes of these materials will help ensure that materials are sourced, transported, and utilised effectively to avoid delays.

“The operating model at the new facility has been designed to move high volumes of steel across multiple bays simultaneously, significantly improving operational efficiency and customer service deliveries.

“In practice, this could see us unload 1,000 tonnes of steel, around 42 truckloads, from the port in a matter of days. By introducing greater redundancy and reducing any supply chain bottlenecks we can help support the development of New Zealand’s infrastructure in a shorter timeframe,” he says.

He says the new facility, which will consolidate several of their logistics sites into one location, is now fully operational.

“The new South Auckland location was chosen from over 20 sites around the region however modelling showed Drury was the optimal area, strategically positioned to drive transport efficiencies within the golden triangle.

“As funding conditions improve we are expecting infrastructure activity to increase on the back of Government fast-tracking legislation to stimulate investment.

“Asmuss is playing a crucial role in supplying industries that are the engine room to New Zealand’s economic recovery. We are committed to doing our bit to support the future growth across construction, infrastructure, manufacturing, and emerging markets such as renewable energies.

“We are positioning ourselves to meet this growth with the investment in the new logistics hub, which will help us to expand our capacity to supply major infrastructure and construction projects,” he says.

Stephen Hughes, CEO of Drury South Crossing the country’s largest mixed-used development, says there is a trend towards centralisation of distribution among large-scale operators.

He says the development is rapidly becoming one of the largest distribution centres in the Auckland region.

“What we are seeing is a growing number of businesses looking to consolidate their distribution facilities into one major hub and reduce their operational costs.

“The construction of specialised facilities like the 5 Green Star Asmuss building, which is one of the most sustainable and structurally strongest of its kind in the industry, requires a greenfields site to allow for this level of customised design.

“The demand for this type of development has seen over 70ha sold to large-scale operators, with hundreds of millions of dollars set to be invested in new facilities to supply the region.

“Businesses opening in the area are also accessing a local workforce that doesn’t want to travel into Auckland,” he says.

Source - Exporter Today Editorial Team

Tonkin + Taylor’s latest video on Drury South's development progress

Q&A Interview with Stephen Hughes of Drury South Crossing

Stephen Hughes, Chief Executive of Drury South Crossing – a development company owned by Stevenson Group – discusses their plans in a 20-year industrial development in Drury, South Auckland, and why it’s seeing demand from a broad range of businesses.

What are Stevenson Group’s strategic plans in the industrial space in Drury – what have you done up until now, and what are your plans for the next five years?

The next five years are going to be the tail end of what will have been a 20-year journey. Over the last 14 years we’ve undertaken the plan change, designed and engineered various infrastructure requirements, and acquired nearly 40 properties. Now we’re in a stage where we’re implementing all those plans. So, we are building roads, wetlands, infrastructure connections, undertaking earthworks and delivering land for industrial, housing, office and retail.

Looking forward, it’ll be a continuation of our sales programme, but also an opportunity for us to remain flexible and respond to the market.

One of the lessons we’ve learned over 14 years is that you can’t predict exactly what the market needs are. The best you can do is retain flexibility, to meet the demand that comes along. So, the big change for us is that we’ve introduced residential and a bit more retail and office, and created much more of an integrated development as opposed to just a standalone industrial precinct.

What are the strengths of Drury as a location in the context of the Auckland–Hamilton corridor, and the golden triangle, and what do you think are the industries that would benefit most from being there? 

Drury is exceptionally well placed because it is within about an hour of almost half of New Zealand’s population, so it’s very close to a big chunk of the New Zealand market, and a sizeable local labour market. 

When we look back to the beginning, a lot of what we were doing was about creating jobs out in Drury and reversing traffic movements in the city. We saw the benefit in turning some of those traffic flows around so people aren’t driving north into the congested parts of Auckland but can have a job in the south and multiple options for how they get there. For those businesses located at Drury South Crossing they will be well placed to distribute services through not just Auckland but also the wider area, especially the Tauranga–Hamilton corridor. 

In the Auckland context, Drury is at that point where the isthmus widens. If you look at somewhere like Mount Wellington, for example, between the Tāmaki River in the east and the Manukau Harbour in the west, it is only about 2km wide. This creates a bottleneck and limits growth potential in such locations. Looking at the land surrounding Drury South Crossing, you can see that the opportunities for scale are far greater than in other, more established parts of Auckland. 

The industries that would benefit from being here are those which need larger footprints of land, and those businesses that are looking to distribute within and outside of Auckland. For those that are distributing to the upper North Island, I think there are some advantages to being on the edge of the city, where there is less congestion, rather than right in the middle.

Based on what you’ve developed in phase one, what’s the mix of industries that have shown interest in Drury?

There’s been interest, including acquisitions, from a full range of industries. For example, logistics and warehousing, transport businesses, automotive, contractors, trade retail, food manufacture and distribution.

And on top of that, there are some we didn’t anticipate that have made enquiries in the last year, such as data centres and film studios. When we began 14 years ago, our thinking was very much around the quarry and the construction market. But what we’re seeing is demand from a broad range of businesses.

We’re also seeing quite a bit of demand from the construction sector. That’s in part because of the significant investment that’s earmarked for the wider Drury area. It obviously makes sense, if you’re in the construction industry, that this is a good place to be.

From your perspective, what needs to be done to plan for large-scale job creation in Drury? And what is the importance of industrial land in that context?

Over the last 14 years we’ve proved the concept and have seen strong demand for industrial and residential property, this will ultimately feed demand for the retail and office sector. 

Typically, industrial land is a leader. It’s driven by businesses needing larger footprints of land, and these are more readily found on the outskirts of the city. The key opportunity with Drury is to ensure that the infrastructure and resilience are planned well in advance. We can learn lessons from some of the other areas in Auckland that have been developed, like Wiri, Albany and East Tāmaki. These areas were established circa 30 years ago and still have issues associated with infrastructure, and ultimately this throttles growth. It’s a lot easier to plan these things in advance rather than try to fix problems later on. The wider Drury area is still full of opportunity to get the infrastructure right. This means enabling a range of transport modes, but also constructing a road network that provides resilience with multiple arterials, not just State Highway 1.  That’s probably the key in terms of activating and ensuring that vision for wider employment.

In your view, what type of anchors or anchor tenant would benefit Drury by helping to build an ecosystem or supply chain around them?

That’s an interesting question. We initially thought that we’d be securing a large, multinational anchor tenant to kick start development at Drury South Crossing. However, we have found that when we look at our customers to date, it hasn’t been one business or one business type that’s enabled us to proceed, it’s the collective - we have more than thirty different businesses that have purchased land. To me, it’s not so much trying to pick what business may want to be here. Rather, it’s about developing the roads and the infrastructure for a range of options – in terms of use, shape and size – and ultimately providing the flexibility that makes Drury South Crossing viable for the market.
What’s your message to capital providers and businesses who may be looking at Auckland, specifically Drury?

I think it’s very easy to underestimate the pace of change in development and whilst Drury is somewhat of a blank canvas today, after 14 years of preparation we’re now seeing things taking shape on the ground. As people gain more confidence in the Drury location, progress will really accelerate. So, I’d be saying that some of these opportunities will come and go; land is selling, and it won’t always be available as people would like it – be it for industrial business, residential homes, or even large-scale infrastructure. Now’s the time to be proactive, look at what you’re trying to achieve, and seize the day.

Multimillion-dollar freshwater wetland opens

A new multimillion-dollar public wetland has opened in Dury to improve water quality and support endangered native wildlife.

The 35,000sqm freshwater wetland is one of the largest constructed wetlands in the country.

The constructed wetland at the 361ha Drury South Crossing subdivision, the country’s largest industrial and residential development, is designed to improve water quality in the area and provide a habitat for endangered native eels, fish and birds and, form part of an extensive new public recreation area.

Located in one of Auckland’s deepest flood plains, the wetland is designed to hold floodwater volumes of up to 58,900m3 – the equivalent capacity of 23.5 Olympic size swimming pools.

The wetland is designed in the shape of a tuna (eel), a culturally significant motif that provides the stormwater management system with a mechanism to reduce the speed of water entering the catchment area through a network of high volume intake pipes at up to 16m3 of water per second.

Tikanga Maori design

Dam design experts on the project worked with Ted Ngataki and Maaka Potini, local Maori artists, to incorporate Tikanga Maori and the concept of a tuna/eel into the Wetland design.

The tuna was selected as having particular significance to iwi as they are indigenous to the area and were once prevalent and a key part of traditional diet and trade.

Tonkin Taylor project manager Peter Norfolk says the new wetland is uniquely designed to act as a dam in both directions – holding the wetland water in during normal operation but overtopping into the wetland in very large flood events to provide additional flood capacity in the floodplain.

“The tuna design was chosen for both its cultural significance to mana whenua as well as for functional purposes,” says Peter.

“The complexity of the S-shaped design with its winding curves and varying elevations is necessary to control the high velocity of the water entering the forebays through 2-2.5m pipes, reducing it to a slow meandering stream and filtering the water to allow the natural removal of sediment and pollutants before it passes through a green outfall into the Hingaia Stream and into the Manukau Harbour.”

Norfolk says the wetland has taken two years to complete and required the excavation of more than 396,000 tonnes of earth.

He says the creation of the wetland with this degree of complex geometry would not have been possible within this timeframe without advancements in 3D modelling technology and integrated guidance systems for excavators.

“Bringing this design to life in a relatively short space of time required the latest in sophisticated 3D modelling and construction techniques, which are used to guide the excavators via GPS.”

Environment conscious

Drury South Crossing chief executive Stephen Hughes says a number of environmental considerations have been integrated into the new subdivision. These include removing pollutants such as zinc – the most common of all heavy metal contaminants in urban rivers and streams, from roofing materials used on site.

Drury South Crossing chief executive, Stephen Hughes.

“In the past, residential lawns and grass around houses would have helped contribute to capturing sediment from stormwater runoff however modern subdivisions tend to have less lawn which increases the need to capture runoff from surrounding roads and housing,” says Stephan.

“While filtering stormwater and runoff is a key aspect of protecting our urban waterways, we have gone a step further by preventing unpainted roofing materials made with zinc from being used at the subdivision.

“The creation of this new wetland and public recreational area is designed to set a new standard for residential and industrial developments.”

Work on Auckland's Drury South Crossing is ahead of schedule

The country's largest industrial and residential development will see about six thousand people employed in the distribution, food processing, tech, manufacturing and logistics sectors.

It had been thought construction on the first of the new warehouses and commercial facilities on the land, would start late this year.

But CEO Stephen Hughes says strong domestic demand means they're ahead of expectations.

He says they settled their first titles just prior to Christmas -- so anticipates construction on those buildings will begin in the first half of this year.

$6m Native Planting Project to Bring Environmental, Employment Boost

A new multi-million dollar native planting project now underway in Auckland is set to offer employment to hundreds of locals and restore native ecological systems for threatened birdlife.

The project is one of the largest privately-funded native plantings in the region to date and will see half a million native plants and trees to be installed over the next 3-5 years, across 85 hectares of connected open space, recreation areas, and wetlands.

The planting of native species at the 361 hectare Drury South Crossing subdivision, the country’s largest industrial and residential development is designed to provide a habitat for endangered native birds, lizards and bats, improve water quality in the area and form part of an extensive new recreation area for Aucklanders.

Mark Lewis, Boffa Miskell project landscape architect for the South Auckland development, who is involved in the creation of the naturalised environment, featuring native plantings ranging from flaxes and grasses to hectares of forest, says extensive research and planning went into understanding the specific environmental needs of the area.

He says the project team worked closely with Auckland Council and mana whenua to develop diverse native planting types, representative of historic vegetation in the area.

“One of the key outcomes of our consultations with local iwi and hapū will see the establishment of hectares of harakeke and purei wetlands, and large stands of kahikatea, kanuka, podocarp, and broadleaf forest types.

“These restored natural systems will connect mature vegetation remnants scattered across the site”.

“The first stage of the project began more than a decade ago, with bird surveys and mapping of key existing vegetation. This has continued throughout the delivery of the project, surveying for lizards, birds, bats, and fish to help us create suitable habitat to support growth in their numbers.” he says

Lewis says the researchers identified more than fifty bird species in the area of which eight are considered threatened or endangered.

“The creation of new habitats for bird species like the grey duck, red-billed gull, white heron, kaka and pied shag has been a priority in the planning of this project.”

“The first stage of the restoration programme this year will see more than a quarter of a million native plants introduced to help support the regeneration of indigenous birdlife, with this number of plants set to double.”

“With mana whenua’s guidance, we also integrated hundreds of native trees into all the streetscapes of the project, including kahikatea, totara, puriri, karaka, and titoki, which are now returning to the landscape once more.” he says.

Stephen Hughes, Drury South Crossing CEO, says the scale of the planting programme is so large it has been spread over four contractors and will take up to 200 workers years to complete.

“It was important for us to not only create a lush recreational area for Aucklanders living or visiting the area but also provide an enduring ecological benefit for the region’s inhabitants.”

“It is our aim to showcase the benefits of environmental investment in the creation of living spaces and see this used as a model for future developments in Auckland.” he says.

Dennis Kirkwood, Chairperson of the Ngati Tamaoho Trust says the planting initiative is an example of where intensive development can achieve great environmental benefits and create jobs.

“We have alongside the with the team at Drury South Crossing over the past decade to help guide and provide meaningful input into the environmental enhancements of this project that will see this through to fruition.”

“As a result, Ngati Tamaoho have been able to support the protection of existing habitat and the creation of new habitat for the birds, bees, Mokomoko, Pekapeka and fishes that are at the core of Te Taiao responsibilities.”

“We believe the outcome of this project will be extremely rewarding.” he says.

New Roading Network Set to Provide Safer Alternative to SH1 in South Auckland

A new South Auckland roading project is set to reduce the number of heavy vehicles passing by a local school, create kilometres of public walking and cycling pathways and provide vehicles with an alternative to State Highway One.

The privately funded roading network at Drury South Crossing, the country’s largest industrial and residential development, will see the creation of a new 6km urbanised roading network and a reduction in the number of heavy vehicles passing Ramarama School and residents on Ramarama Road.

Drury is one of the country’s fastest-growing areas with a population expected to soar by over 60,000 in the next 30 years. 

The project will also include the construction of 5km of walking and cycling paths, as well as a 4km shared path from Drury village to Drury South Crossing.  

The Council proposed Mill Road project will provide an alternative to State Highway One and provide a new North-South connection from Manukau to Pukekohe via Drury South Crossing.

Stephen Hughes, CEO of Drury South Crossing, says to facilitate the Drury South Crossing development a number of existing roads need to be closed and new roads created. 

He says from late September 2020 the Southern section of Ramarama Road will be permanently closed while the northern section of the road will remain open. 

Traffic will use the newly constructed Maketu Road instead of Raramarama Road with the connection to Fitzgerald Road retained.

“The new roading layout with the development area has been the subject of comprehensive technical assessments through various Council planning processes.

“An improved transport environment is being created with lower speed zones on new urbanised roads replacing the higher speed limits on rural roads.

“One of the key outcomes of this development will be an upgraded road network which reduces the heavy traffic at Ramarama School - an education facility whose rolls are expected to surge as the local population increases in the coming years,” he says.

The 360-hectare, mixed-use Drury South Crossing development is expected to contribute $2.3bn to the economy and employ 6,000 Kiwis when completed in 2027.

For media information, interviews or images, please contact Impact PR

COVID-19: Planning for Major New Projects at NZ’s Largest Industrial and Residential Development Underway

More than a fifth of the 170 hectares of commercial land available at the country’s largest industrial and residential development have now been sold as businesses look to establish large scale local operations in a post-COVID environment. 

The development is expected to contribute $2.3bn to the economy, employ 6,000 in the distribution, food processing, tech, manufacturing and logistics sectors and provide affordable housing for 2,000 Kiwis when it is completed in 2027. 

Construction on the first of these new warehouses and commercial facilities will begin in late  2021 - with this phase also expected to provide an employment hub for the region.

Stephen Hughes, CEO of Drury South Crossing, a 361-hectare mixed-use development in South Auckland, says already several food suppliers are looking to establish high volume capability locally and there is also interest from a diverse range of other industries including logistics providers and a 10,000 sqm data centre. 

Hughes says he’s also had enquiries from US film studios looking to develop some of the land into sound stages and production facilities.  

“The agricultural sector is seeing strong growth potential for New Zealand branded products as the pandemic stretches supplies around the world and consumers focus their attention on where their food is sourced from,” he says.  

He says increasingly businesses operating at that level need a sizable footage in order to accommodate higher levels of automation. 

“What we are seeing is a need from local food producers to store large volumes of export ready product where it can be accessed using automated storage retrieval systems (ASRS), and robotic technology to access products from warehouses that are of a scale we have not generally seen in New Zealand.

“There are relatively few sites left in the Auckland region which can accommodate this scale of operation and it has been encouraging to see that local and international businesses are looking to invest at this level - which will be an essential part of the region’s economic recovery,” he says.

Along with the growth in local business development, Hughes says a clear reentry pathway into the country is needed for multinational organisations wanting to partner with us.

“This is one of the few times in our modern history where our geographic isolation is a clear competitive advantage and we are going to need more than international students and tourists to restart the economy.

“As a nation we need to create new infrastructure and manufacturing opportunities to provide New Zealanders with some control and certainty over their future. 

“We have multinational executives queuing at the country’s door to develop new operations and jobs here. Unfortunately, there is only so much we can do over email and Zoom calls before they need to physically visit the site of their future investment,” he says.

Hughes says consideration is going to be needed as to how these visitors are treated as they come through our quarantine process.  Whilst this process is critical to protect Kiwis, a one size fits all approach is not necessarily conducive to securing investments and jobs at the level the country needs.

For media information, interviews or images, please contact Impact PR

Construction of the storm water wetland.

The wetland will act as a reserve and an amenity for recreation, while also creating an ecological benefit and supporting the treatment of stormwater.