New World leaves South City Shopping Centre for bigger site
Monday, 17 July 2017
South City Shopping Centre is losing one of its main drawcards - the New World supermarket.
It will move to a new site to the west, across Durham St and span the block from Wilmer Street to Moorhouse Ave.
Land records show Foodstuffs made land purchases of more than $20 million from Miles Premises, Kevin O'Connell, and Wairere Holdings.
The new supermarket will be managed by the same owners of the South City New World, Justin and Claire Vaudrey.
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The new site is being prepared for construction for the new New World, and a resource consent has been lodged for its construction.
South City Shopping Centre management has yet to reveal the identity of any new tenant for the existing New World space when it is vacated.
The South City property is owned by rags-to-riches Christchurch millionaire John Butterfield who was brought up in east Christchurch before building an estimated $80m fortune from construction and investment.
Butterfield was at his Fiji home where he spends much of his time and unavailable for comment. He also owns the Smith City site over Colombo St from South City, making him the biggest city landowner by area.
Foodstuffs general manager property and retail development, Roger Davidson, said the new store would be modern and larger at 3500 sqm compared with the South City premises of 2700 sqm.
'It means we'll be able to offer a larger range of fresh foods and extra services such as a cafe.
'We'll also have dedicated carparking and a layout that's easier to access.'
Davidson said the store would be opened in 2019.
Foodstuffs has 19 New World stores in Canterbury and 41 stores in the South Island.
It also operates Four Square, Pak'n'Save, Raeward Fresh, Henrys BWS, and On The Spot stores
The 2017 accounts show the group made profit of $341m on turnover of $2.9 billion.