It's official - Mitre 10 Mega is coming to Wanaka.
Allan and Martin Dippie, who own the existing Mitre 10 store in the town, have confirmed plans to build a Mega regional store, scheduled for completion by March 2020.
About five years' planning had gone into the multimillion-dollar development, which would comprise a 9000sq m building on a 2.8ha site on the eastern side of the Three Parks business centre, Martin Dippie said.
The cost of the development was ''north of $25million''.
They had future-proofed themselves with the design of the state-of-the-art ''green'' building, which was going to be ''one out of the box''.
The development included a retail hall, drive-through trade yard, garden centre and cafe. The exterior would be black, rather than the trademark Mega orange, meaning it would have a low visual impact, he said.
The new building would have a lot of prefabricated parts and would be designed to conserve energy. Hopefully, it could be taken off the grid for ''quite a chunk of the year''.
Tenders would close in February and construction begin in March, the aim being to be finished by March 2020 - ''all things going according to plan''.
''We're very keen to get it built,'' Mr Dippie said.
The old store was about half the size and ''completely over-trading'' and they desperately needed to get out of it to take the pressure off the team.
That team was led by Mark Watson, who finished school and secured full-time employment at Mitre 10 Dunedin in 1987.
In 2000, when he and his brother bought an existing Mitre 10 store in Wanaka, they offered Mr Watson the opportunity to help run it.
In 2003, the store moved from its original downtown location to a larger space at its present premises in Plantation Rd.
The store employed about 80 staff and that number was expected to grow with the Mega development, although it was not yet known by how many, Mr Dippie said.
He and his brother believed it would be a good investment in the longer term. The larger business would allow them to offer an extended range and the big trade facility would be able to cater to the scale of construction in the area.
Mr Dippie, who is chairman of the national Mitre 10 board, said the first Mega store was opened about 2004 and it had proved to be a successful strategy.
