Tenants ready to go at Nelson Junction

Ryan Gibson is switching from optometry to beds when he opens BedsRus at Nelson Junction’s 12-store complex early next year.

He was the first tenant to sign up with Gibbons Holdings that is building the complex opposite Mitre 10 in Stoke, and though beds will be a big change after seven years running an optometry business in Auckland, he says beds are another health product.

Customers faced with decisions on foam density, warmth and firmness will have the option of using Sleepmap, where they simply lie down on the bed and the technology tells them what areas of their body need support and which bed will do that.

It has been a long wait since he signed up for a store in March last year and moved to Nelson with his family, but now he is just excited to get into the store and, hopefully, open in March.

“It’s going to be amazing. One of the main things for us was even though there have been delays, we knew it would be the right site because it’s right in the middle of everything. I’m just so happy we’re here; it’s the right place.”

The 10,700 square metre complex is a hive of activity as construction continues, with the first stores in stage one expected to be completed early next year. Tenants can then fit out the stores and Gibbons expects the centre to be operational by Easter.

A spokesperson for Gibbons says about 80 people are working on the site and all are contractors or subcontractors from the Nelson Marlborough regions.

Almost 20km of locally-sourced LVL timber has been used in construction, creating fewer emissions in production, saving 860 tonne of CO2.

Alongside the complex, there will be more than 900 carparks between Mitre 10 and the new stores. Recycled concrete and asphalt has been used in the construction of the newer carparks to reduce demand on natural resources and also keep material out of landfill.

Gibbons has tenants for many of its 12 stores and has so far announced Mountain Warehouse, Aki Sushi, Hunting and Fishing and Bed Bath and Beyond, as well as BedsRus.

Aki Sushi director Tae Bang says the family business had not been contemplating a new store, but Nelson Junction was an opportunity they could not refuse if it meant keeping a national chain out of the region and offering sushi in Stoke.

The business had just closed Aki Kitchen in Richmond when it took up a site at Nelson Junction. Tae says they will continue to run Aki Sushi in both Richmond and Nelson and their sushi cafe, 194 Eatery, in Nelson.

The new Nelson Junction store will employ between six and 10 people and he says it will hopefully be up and running by May or June next year.

“When my mother first started making sushi in Nelson, the people didn’t know what seaweed was and that it came in a packet of sheets. Now everyone wants a sushi train.”

A Mountain Warehouse spokesperson says its Nelson Junction store will also be additional to the Nelson store.

Hunting and Fishing has announced it is moving to a ‘one store strategy’ and will be consolidating stores in both Nelson and Richmond to focus on its Nelson Junction store.

A spokesperson at Bed, Bath and Beyond, which operates stores in both Richmond and Nelson, says it has yet to decide whether the Nelson Junction store will be a third for the area, or replace existing stores.