A freehold two-storey standalone former bank building is for sale in the Pakuranga Plaza shopping mall.
The building is one of the few individually-owned properties at Pakuranga Plaza, says Matt Lee of Bayleys Auckland who, with colleagues James Chan and Geoff Wyatt, is marketing 1 Pepler St for sale by tenders closing at 4.30pm on Friday June 28.
The vacant property, featured in Bayley’s latest Total Property portfolio magazine, comprises a 414sq m building on a 266sq m site which was an ASB bank branch strategically sited at the junction of Pakuranga and Reeves Rds and Ti Rakau Drive.
Lee says the sale of the retail building comes a time when Auckland's retail spending rose 4 per cent last year and total returns for shopping centre property were 3.5 per cent.
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“Although the building is being sold vacant, there is annual holding income of $8000 from an ASB ATM machine at the front of the property. ASB will sign a new initial lease with a two-year term from the date of settlement.”
The building has a carpeted street level floor of 266sq m and a 148sq m level above. Over the years the property has undergone significant renovation, with the most recent in the early 2000s.
Inside, the premises were used by the bank for ground floor retail and offices - with two access points to a stairwell leading to the upper level which has an existing office fit-out along with a kitchenette and toilets.
Off-street parking is provided by the plaza's 1400 open and undercover car parks. In front of the property is one of the main parking lots, with dual access along Pakuranga Rd, Ti Rakau Dr and Aylesbury St.
A rear door within the premises gives access along a service lane and through a gate to the eastern side of the building, which has a seismic rating of 70 per cent new build standard (NBS).
Lee says that, as a retail property, the building is open to many potential uses – a cafe, restaurant or takeaway store, along with any type of shopping that’s acceptable within the plaza's mix.
“The plaza, covering 28,000sq m of retail space, has a mix of about 80 internal and strip retail tenancies. It has about five million people passing through its doors annually and has a strong residential catchment with the population of the wider Howick Local Board area expected to reach 160,000 by 2030,” Lee says.
“Presenting a blank canvas, and with a favourable Auckland Council zoning of Business - Town Centre, which has a general height control of 48.5m, the property is suitable either for an owner-occupier to move in immediately and refurbish to their business style and needs; or an investor with a tenant; or a developer because of its commercial and residential development potential,” he says.
This would fit in with the plans of Pakuranga Plaza's main owner to substantially redevelop the mall and its 4ha site into a town centre in the near future. Previously announced plans have included commercial, retail and residential buildings.
Anchor tenants are already onboard. The Warehouse's lease runs until 2035, Farmers has renewed its lease, and supermarket operator Countdown is staying on its site.
The company's planning is being finalised and consents are being sought now that the $1.4 billion Auckland-Manukau Eastern Transport Initiative's (AMETI) proposed plans for the eastern busway's final alignments with roading - and the Pakuranga bus interchange’s location at the town centre with access points - have been settled.
The busway will ease congestion and provide more transport options. Construction has started on the busway lanes along Lagoon Dr and Pakuranga Rd.
Wyatt says the property's location at Pepler St directly faces Pakuranga Rd, which benefits from its immediate surroundings along the northwest side of the mall close to Countdown and a Flight Centre.
“The mall is a popular shopping area which has been at the heart of the eastern suburbs for more than 50 years and has more than 120,000 cars passing daily,” Wyatt says.
GYP Properties, a subsidiary of Singaporean listed company Global Yellow Pages, bought Pakuranga Plaza from Ladstone Holdings in 2014, but its history goes back further than that.
Built in 1965 on a site originally called Cabbage Tree Swamp, the mall, once owned by Westfield and called Westfield Pakuranga, was New Zealand's second mall of the modern age, incorporating Farmers and George Court department stores.
The mall has been transformed several times since it first went up and now retains little of the 1960s’ style it once had.
