While heavily focused on Hawke’s Bay, Wallace Development Company has expanded beyond the region since it was established in Havelock North in 1982.
It now has offices in Tauranga, Palmerston North and Auckland, completing more than 400 property projects throughout the country. It also manages some 250 tenancies in more than 50 properties made up of industrial, office and residential buildings.
Current building projects include the Tech Collective in Heretaunga St and a five-level office block in Tennyson St, Hastings; an ASB branch in Hamilton; and an Inland Revenue office in Napier.
Completed buildings include an ASB branch in Whangarei, Department of Corrections facilities in Levin and Palmerston North, and TAB in Tauranga.
Its biggest investment is Massey University's 10ha Hokowhitu campus at Palmerston North, which is being leased as serviced offices. The complex has 20 buildings of some 30,000sq m of floor space constructed in the 1960s and 1980s.
The son of a businessman, Wallace grew up "expecting to own my own business" but says he stumbled on property after buying a few houses as a 20-year-old and doing them up. He then switched to commercial property to achieve scale and worked with tenants to identify and fill their needs, "and that’s the way we primarily operate today."
After 35 years, Wallace is "very particular" about whom he deals with and prefers blue-chip clients such as Z Energy and government agencies.