Garry was born and breed in the Manawatu, growing up in Foxton, attending Manawatu college.

His first business, the Ashhurst dairy in 1980, a seven day a week business that gave him broad business experience. In 2012 Garry brought his first Subway store in Palmerston North. He went onto purchase a building at 334 Rangitikei St to put a second Subway store on this site. Soon after the corner building at 43 Princess was brought and the Broadway subway store was relocated into it.

In 2019 a deal was struck to sell both Subway businesses and buy the local Anchor milk business becoming a franchisee for Fonterra. After 4 years of a 7-day business and early starts, a buyer presented himself and Garry was receptive to sell.

Along the way Garry has owned the properties where these businesses operated and where possible he was able to renovate the building to suit the business 7-dayrements. Garry still has a variety of commercial buildings of his own, plus has the experience of building/ developing some well-known properties in Palmerston North.

Garry now joins the Property Brokers Commercial team following this long and varied business career to help others achieve their goals in commercial real estate.

Whether it be investing, developing, subdividing, leasing, buying, or selling. Garry is keen to assist and share his knowledge in the industry, always happy to chat about commercial property in general and assist where he can, to help people achieve their goals.

These are Some of Garry’s personal projects!

71 Warick Street, Feilding:
A large 8,000m2 development site in the heart of Feilding that once was the Write Price Super Market was purchased on spec for a future development project. Mitre 10 Feilding was identified as a possible target client for a new build. Planning and construction is about to commence on what will be a circa $16m project.

2 Malden Street, Palmerston North:
This is part of what was the Milson Foundry block comprising 6 adjacent buildings in total, purchased in 2022. Demolition of three older buildings on the corner have made way for a brand new building completed in August 2025 for Allroad Limited which was an existing tenant in one of the other buildings further down Malden Street. The completed building on this corner was sold in October 2025 for $3.2m

1015 Tremaine Avenue, Palmerston North:
Government built in 1969 for what was the then Country Library Service, this heritage protected building architecturally designed in the Brutalist style once housed the Treaty of Waitangi. The property sat empty for 10 years prior to coming to the market in 2020. After a period of time, Health NZ was introduced to provide them with a new Mental Health Clinical and administration centre off site from the main hospital. Resource consent, Building Consent including Heritage compliance and seismic strengthening was a complicated and major undertaking.

284 Rangitikei Street, Palmerston North:
Built originally for the Westpac bank regional Head Office and branch. I purchased this property partially vacant in 2016. Negotiations with the other tenants allowed the building to be completely vacant and ready for conversion into a large format retail property which was the best outcome for the building given its location and high profile. Animates were signed up to the new development with the owner completing all consents and managing the build to what it is today. Sold in 2017 for $3m to local investor.

227 Featherston Street, Palmerston North:
Built originally for Valentines Restaurant  the property sat empty for some time prior to purchasing in 2015 . Changing market conditions met the property was best suited to another use so the property was redesigned and expanded to meet a new tenants requirements. The tenant (Office Products) ended up purchasing the property on completion. Sold in 2017 for $1.4m

334 Rangitikei Street, Palmerston North:

Originally built as a Veterinary clinic I purchased the property in 2015. Owning a Subway franchise at the time, plans were made to demolish and rebuild the site as a new Subway store with an extra shop on the corner. Resource and Building consents were completed and the new building was built. This store became the highest turnover store in Palmerston North. Sold in 2021 for $1.3m

43 Princess Street, Palmerton North:
Originally an office building, I purchased the property in 2013, with a vacant ground floor and an office tenant upstairs. The building was re-purposed into a new Subway store at ground level and a new office tenant was secured on the first floor. Relocating my existing Broadway Subway store to this building. This had an instant improvement to the business. Sold in 2019 for $1m

364 College Street, Palmerston North:
Originally and old house and corner retail site owned by JVL real estate and used as their offices. I purchased the property vacant in 2015. Had plans drafted for a corner multi tenanted retail site. Domino’s pizza and Black Bull liquor signed up off the plans.
The site was cleared and the new building was built. Ground condition meant extensive engineering was required. Sold in 2021 for $2.5m to a local investor who was already an earlier client.

39 Malden Street, Palmerston North:
Steel and Tube had been long term tenants at this property, but with an expiring lease, they had already committed to a new site. I purchased the property in 2013 on spec and eventually developed the site for NZ Post. This was a large undertaking with seismic work, large additions and alterations to the building with an extensive fitout, additional adjacent land was purchased for extra car parking. Resource and Building consents were required along with easements for access to the rear of the site. This was a complicated transaction with many factors required to bring it together.
Sold in 2015 for $7.6m to a property investment syndicator.