WASHINGTON: One of New Zealand’s largest wine and glass storage facilities has been opened at Port Nelson, boosting the region’s “very strong growth story”. The multi-million dollar Patterson Logistics Centre, named after the late Port Nelson chairman Nick Patterson, was opened on time and on budget by Minister of Economic Development and Transport Simon Bridges on Tuesday. It will serve as the Nelson-based logistics hub of QuayConnect, the port’s Nelson-Marlborough integrated warehousing, transport, and logistics service, for the transfer of goods the wine industry needs to package and bottle its products.
The company was established 12 months ago in partnership with Central Express Ltd. Key users of the warehouse include bottling and warehousing firm WineWorks as well as glass bottle manufacturer Owens-Illinois. Bridges said the scale of the building demonstrated the growth of key industries in the top of the south, and the confidence that Nelson had developed as a port and as a city. “Whether it’s fishing, horticulture or forestry, it’s a very strong growth story…and this centre very much speaks to that.” The 13,000m2 storage facility, the first major building project of a $32 million redevelopment plan at the port, was dedicated to Pateerson. He served for more than two decades on the Port Nelson board as both a director from 1994 and as chairman from 2001 to 2014. He died in January last year. Patterson’s widow Jo and children Katherine, James and William attended the opening ceremony.
