2018 North Harbour Business Hall of Fame Laureate
David McAlpine was born in Warkworth and educated at Kelston Boys High School. Working life for David started at Fletchers as a Quantity Surveying Cadet, where he also met his wife of 40 years Deirdre.
David started Kea Property Group in 1980, early developments were in the Wairau Valley area when North Harbour and Albany were farming and orchards and the Northern Motorway finished at Tristram Avenue! In 1985 David made the decision to focus solely on Commercial and Industrial development and have no involvement in residential property or run a construction company, which he has adhered to, to this day.
Over the last 25 years Kea has been the dominant developer in the North Harbour region, 40% of their business is repeat business, with Multi National companies like Ingram Micro now in their 4th Kea building. With a business partner of 20 years Zane Gifford, they have completed 254,000m² of new buildings, 95% in the North Harbour region, the roof area would cover over 42 rugby fields and the value is in excess of $1.2billion, 325 Northshore companies occupy Kea buildings.
The future of the business is now in Hobsonville, Silverdale and Warkworth as the North Harbour City expands.
Kea pride themselves on the quality of the product they produce and for David his greatest achievement is providing a building legacy for the future generations and creating the “Kea” brand.
During this time, David has served on the boards of North Shore Soccer, Team North Harbour and as a Trustee of North Harbour Stadium.
As the Kea business has developed over the last 35 years, so has David’s philanthropic work. Beneficiaries of Kea’s success and major sponsorships have included, North Harbour Rugby, Netball and Soccer, North Harbour Club AIMES Awards, Bruce Mason Centre, North Harbour Stadium, Erin Taylor Olympic kayaker, Brendon Leitch motor racing and numerous charities to name but a few.
David is a very worthy inductee to the North Harbour Business Hall of Fame
