STAKEHOLDER NEWSLETTER | APRIL 2024
IN THIS EDITION
OVERVIEW
A Message From Our Managing Director - Scott Gibbons
Welcome to 2024!
In early 2023, we committed to ensuring we pursued a couple of streams of work really well to maintain vigilance in the current economic environment. We aimed to excel in the delivery of our current developments to ensure our delivery and outcomes exceeded expectations from all concerned. We also aimed to ensure we kept in close contact with our existing customers as we all navigate through this next period together.
I am delighted to announce that on the 12th of March 2024, we inaugurated the Nelson Junction Stage 1 development and welcomed five of our new 13 stores within the development. It is extremely satisfying to see the development come together with so many people contributing, from the design team, delivery team, and our new tenants. Please join us for a celebration and launch event for the first four stores on May 11th from 9am – 3pm, where we will have events for the family, over $10,000 of incredible prizes to be won, and special deals from all our vendors at Nelson Junction including Mitre 10 Mega and Speight’s Ale House.
And we have more exciting new tenants coming to Nelson Junction to be announced over the coming months, before we embark on transitioning to the Supermarket later in the year.
A key focus for us has been around our core purpose mantra of relationships. Being in contact, working with tenants, supporting where we can. We are acutely aware of how difficult some sectors are finding the current trading conditions. We have control over some of the cost elements; however, some we do not. We are undertaking a review of our work plan for 2024 to ensure we are being vigilant for the year ahead.
The new year has also seen some old and new faces within the team.
We have recently welcomed Shetal Sandhir to our team in the Finance Admin role, Daryl Wehner has joined us as Chief Financial Officer, and Louise Devine, Director (and my sister), has rejoined the Property team to help out for a period of time. Christina Ewing joins us in the Property team as a Property Administrator. Most recently, Ashleigh, my EA, has gone on maternity leave, and we welcome Francheska Lachica as maternity cover.
With a new team comes a new lens, new energy, and a great opportunity to reflect and review how we go about our business. I am looking forward to spending some time over the coming months drilling into how we can improve in key areas of our business as we continuously look to enhance our performance, service, and customer interactions.
As always, I’d like to thank you for your support, and we remain committed to staying connected with you all over this next period of time to ensure we support each other where we can.
Scott Gibbons - Managing Director
SUPPORTING OUR COMMUNITY
Supporting the Nelson Tasman Hospice
At the end of 2023, Gibbons was proud to announce a $5000 donation to Nelson Tasman Hospice on behalf of our company, valued tenants, and key stakeholders.
In lieu of traditional Christmas gifts, we chose to support the invaluable services provided by the Nelson Tasman Hospice in our community. Their unwavering dedication to offering compassionate care to individuals and families facing life-limiting illnesses is truly inspiring.
This donation represents the collective goodwill of our company, tenants, and key stakeholders who believe in the power of coming together to make a positive impact.
As a family and business, we actively support a range of initiatives that have a lasting positive impact on the communities in which we operate. If you would like to see more of what we do in our community, visit:
ESG | Stakeholder Feedback
Gibbons’ NPS Rating
NPS stands for Net Promoter Score which is a metric used to rate customer, or in this case, stakeholder experience. NPS measures the loyalty of customers to a company with the simple question, “How likely are you to recommend Gibbons to a friend or colleague?” The scoring is reported with a number from the range -100 to +100, where 70-100 is excellent, 30-70 is great, 0-30 is good, and anything below 0 needs improvement.
Gibbons has been recording our NPS score since June 2022, through the online platform Delighted. Hopefully, you have received an email from gibbons@delighted.com at some point in this period, that looks like the image on the right, and hopefully you have sent us a response! Please know that this is not spam or a scam, and we really appreciate your time in giving us feedback. This is a rolling survey year on year, and everyone is asked once a year to quickly complete it.
Why do we use NPS?
We decided to use NPS as a reporting metric to keep in touch with our stakeholders’ (tenants, staff, contractors, consultants, and suppliers) satisfaction with our company. Regularly collecting NPS data allows us to identify positive and negative trends in our operations and to inform changes so we can keep improving our services to our stakeholders. We are proud that our NPS score for FY2024 is 65, but we know that there is always room for improvement, and appreciate your continuing to complete the survey for us each year.
And if you do not wish to be surveyed, please feel free to click ‘unsubscribe’ in the Delighted email, or simply reply to this newsletter and ask to be removed. We value your time and appreciate your support.
DEVELOPMENTS | Summer Update
Our Developments
Nelson Junction
Nelson Junction offically opened with a blessing on 12 March with the first three shops, Bed Bath & Beyond, BedsRus, and Mountain Warehouse opening their doors later that week. And Hunting & Fishing opened their doors on 18 April. These stores are the first of 13 to bring to life the Nelson region’s newest home improvement and lifestyle centre. A huge congratulations from all of us at Gibbons, to all those who have been involved in reaching this exciting milestone, especially our delivery partner Gibbons Naylor.
Stage One of the development’s construction is on track for completion by June 2024. Anchored by Mitre 10 Mega, this large-format retail hub caters to home and lifestyle needs. The heart of the Nelson Tahunanui commercial area now boasts a vibrant mix of national and international brands. In addition to the aforementioned stores, The Baby Factory, Aki Sushi, Early Settler, Petstock, and more exciting retailers are on the horizon to open in 2024!
Only two tenancies remain available. If you’re keen to be part of this thriving development, reach out to our large-format retail specialist, Leroy Wolland (contact at 021 537 697), or our Nelson expert, Geoff Faulkner (contact at 027 213 6266). Let’s explore how this fantastic opportunity can work for you!
UCOL Te Pukenga | Palmerston North
One year on, and it is great to see our UCOL Te Pukenga project in Palmerston North buzzing with the start of the school year. The 2,000m2 facility is home base for 37 staff and 600 students studying nursing, medical imaging and social services. It is one of only three New Zealand providers that offer a medical imaging degree and is the fourth largest in terms of nursing students.
The UCOL opportunity was unique and it struck a number of chords for us; we were looking to geographically diversify and had identified within the property portfolio that we had some gaps, specifically in the educational space and the medical space. And so looking at this project, we were really keen to be part of it.
Another major win for the project was the adaptive reuse of the existing building that was there. Adaptive reuse is an involved process of understanding the bones of a building, and we knew that we needed to earthquake strengthen it and create a new footplate suitable for healthcare. Essentially, we created a near-new building out of the bones of an old one, which made for a really smart and efficient use of resources. The lack of having to demolish the entire building and the carbon offset advantage of adaptive re-use was phenomenal.
This was a commercial project, but there were a lot of feel-good-factors that we got from providing a state-of-the-art facility to create opportunities for youth to grow and learn. Legacy is a very important value for us; we like to leave a lasting impression on the buildings and the delivery that we do in the communities and this is a great example of that.
Berryfields Crossing
On December 17, Gibbons were proud to host a family fun day for the community at our Berryfields Crossing development, and it was great to see so many people enjoying the live music, food and games. We had around 200 people show up from the community on the day and got to meet some of the locals who live in the neighbouring subdivisions. It was great to connect with these stakeholders and also say thank you for their patience as we continue to develop the site.
And we would like to say another big thank you to our wonderful tenants Silky Otter Cinemas, Joe’s Garage Berryfields, Eat Italy Ristorante Pizzeria, and Burger N Beast for providing prizes, some delicious nibbles and for showcasing Berryfields Crossing and all it has to offer for the event.
The latest at Berryfields Crossing is that the covered outdoor dining area has been completed, just in time for the cooler wet weather that will be heading our way. So head down for year-round al fresco dining-- drinks and a burger after work or a delicious pizza for dinner.
Lower Queen Street
At the start of 2024, we welcomed four new tenants to our stunning newly completed 1,800m2 warehouse at LQS Industrial Park, located on Lower Queen Street, Richmond. G2 Elite Netting, Harvey Wholesale, Pic’s, and Men at Work, are all settled in to the industrial park and are hopefully enjoying the scenic backdrop of the Waimea Estuary and nearby amenities.
We have continued to develop the infrastructure onsite, mainly in response to further development interest—a mix of existing tenant expansion and new-to-the-development tenants. It’s great to see current tenants outgrowing their spaces and overall demand in the commercial and industrial space hold strongly in the market. With planning in progress, we envisage breaking ground on these new construction projects towards the middle of the year.
Bishopdale Development
Vista Heights is Gibbons’ residential subdivision in Bishopdale, Nelson, just a few kilometres from the Nelson CBD. It continues to tick over nicely, with good weather allowing civil contractors to complete the construction of Stage 5 at the end of 2023, bringing a further four sections to the market. We currently have 9 sections titled and available for sale, all with stunning views.
The next stages are under a peer review on design elements, and we are completing the gully remediation work and connecting a lifestyle block from the potteries land adjacent to Vista Heights. The intention is to start the earthworks on these sections in the months of May and June 2024.
The current economic climate and cost of funds is making the affordability for the first home buyers challenging; however, since the start of January demand for sections and sales has picked up and attracted parties are showing more interest in building their dream home in these nicely positioned sections. For more information on what is available, please visit the development website at vistaheights.co.nz.
A Warm Welcome to Our New Tenants
TENANT UPDATE | Welcome
In addition to the new tenants that have opened their doors at Nelson Junction and LQS Industrial Park, we would also like to warmly welcome Te Puni Kokiri and Ruru Remedial Care at the Nelson Mail Building.
Opportunities
Here are some new and exciting leasing opportunities within our portfolio if you are looking to expand or know of someone who would like to join our tenant family. Click on the link for more info. We’d love to hear from you.
