Investing at home rather than abroad should be the priority of the Wanganui District Council's trading arm - and, with that in mind, directors of Wanganui Holdings Ltd have been asked to revise their investment strategy.
Holdings has the task of managing the council property portfolio - worth an estimated $111 million - but this week councillors moved to have the strategy revised as a stimulus for the local economy.
Councillor Rob Vinsen, himself a director of Holdings, told the Chronicle the investment strategy had been discussed at a workshop and while he pushed for a change then he did not get support.
However, he raised it again at this week's council meeting and, as a result, Holdings directors will be asked to revise the strategy, aware that councillors believe investing outside the city and district could be viewed "unfavourably" by the community.
"There are two positions on this matter - a purely commercial one, and a wider one which reflects the local need for investment," Mr Vinsen said.
"My view is that there are few enough investors in our local economy and that this $111 million property portfolio can be a major player."
He said investing outside of Wanganui was not without risk. Dunedin City Council was an example when its investment into a $16.4 million property development in Queenstown saw it lose nearly half of the money in the 2008 financial crisis.
The council's property group puts forward investment opportunities and these have to be endorsed by councillors before going to Wanganui Holdings whose directors are responsible for protecting and increasing the value of the portfolio.
But while the directors favoured diversifying into markets outside of Wanganui, Mr Vinsen said it presented a conundrum for him.
"As a Holdings director, and from a purely commercial viewpoint, I concur with their view. But as a district councillor, I have to express my opposition to diversification outside Wanganui.
"It's my belief that any funds that may be generated are better reinvested locally as a stimulus to the local economy."
An example was the i-SITE building on Moutoa Quay, which is city freehold on harbour board land.
"This development has been a cornerstone of the river-edge development and a blue chip tenant for the property portfolio. I would prefer to use the money for those uses rather than invest in a warehouse in Kapiti or a shopping mall in Hamilton."