1981 Founded Pine Construction

The 1980s was a time of incredible change in New Zealand; business was redefined, commercial property investment expanded and inflation ran in double digits. In 1981, one of Keith Pine’s dentist clients inherited a large sum of money which he wanted to invest in commercial property. Pine had had some experience with residential property development previously and saw this as an opportunity to branch out into the commercial property market. The business proposition was simple – the dentist would provide the equity capital to finance the development and Pine would run the project from start to finish at no cost for his time. On completion of the project, the partners would split the costs and each take possession of half of the newly tenanted commercial units.

The development was a great success and Pine Construction and Development Ltd was born. The new company used the same business model over and over with different development partners and by the end of the decade, Pine had built 61 commercial premises and not a single project lost money. When the share market crashed in 1987 followed by the property crash the next year, Pine Construction and Development Ltd wound down and Keith Pine refocused on his dental laboratory.

Keith Pine’s experience with commercial property development was a crucial component of the formula that was to shape his approach to dentistry over the next decade and the advent of Geddes Dental Group.