Prime corner Shore site offers big future upside

Over half a hectare of land in a busy corner position on the Wairau Valley’s main arterial road offers a host of future add-value possibilities.

Located at 75 View Road, at the intersection with Wairau Road on Auckland’s North Shore, the underutilised 5,778sqm site is zoned for potential multi-level development up to 20 metres high. It also comes with approximately 2,109sqm of retail, hospitality and office premises with 16 tenancies currently generating net annual rental income of $582,013 plus GST.

The property, a trophy listing in Bayleys’ final Total Property portfolio for the year, is for sale by tender, closing closing 4pm Thursday, 5th December 2019 unless sold prior.  It is being marketed by Terry Kim and Ranjan Unka of Bayleys North Shore Commercial in conjunction with Nigel McNeill of Bayleys central Auckland office.  

“Large properties with corner exposure on Wairau Road are highly sought after and tightly held so they rarely come up for sale,” says Kim. “This one is located on the busiest part of Wairau Road, around 500 metres from the northern motorway’s Tristram Avenue on and off ramps and on the route to and from the nearby Link Drive bulk retail precinct.”

Ranjan Unka says a major point of difference which adds long-term value to the property is its new zoning under the Auckland Unitary Plan. 75 View Road sits within a Built Environment Identified Growth Corridor Overlay. This zoning is applied to a limited number of significant road corridors, in this case Wairau Road which is a major arterial route between Glenfield and Takapuna.

“The purpose of this overlay is to provide additional opportunity for retail activities, particularly large format retail, not typically provided for in the underlying zoning which is Light Industry.

“It means this site has more future development flexibility than most properties in the Wairau Valley which have the standard Light Industry zoning. The overlay allows for multi-storey development up to 20m in height and a mix of potential uses including retail, hospitality, office, industrial or car dealerships, subject of course to obtaining any necessary resource consents.”

In the meantime, Terry Kim says a variety of well-established occupants are producing substantial income for the next owner to enjoy, with the ability to also add immediate value by leasing up two vacant tenancies. This would provide potential additional income of approximately $60,000pa.

The larger of two separate building developments on the site, located on its Wairau Road frontage, is generating the majority of the property’s cashflow. Built in the 1980s, the 1,384sqm premises is occupied by the Wairau Sports Bar, which has a gaming lounge, a neighhouring liquor store and an upstairs karaoke bar, with a 453sqm Asian supermarket at the rear in a former warehouse building.

Terry Kim says these tenancies have been in place since the early 2000s. There is also 120sqm of empty ground floor space which would suit food and beverage or retail use.

A separate 918sqm two-level building was added at the rear of the site not long after the current owner acquired the property in 2004. “This provides a good standard of modern commercial accommodation, with retail tenancies on the ground floor and office suites above,” says Terry Kim.

This building has 12 tenancies ranging in size from 40sqm to 117sqm. Ground floor tenants include restaurants, a hair salon, florist and butchery.

The overall site has extensive asphalt sealing and parking for approximately 88 cars located at the front of the Sports Bar and between the two buildings. There are two access points off View Road.

Terry Kim says tenants include a variety of Korean businesses which benefit from significant patronage from the North Shore’s substantial Korean population. He says occupants are a mix of small to medium sized businesses, providing a good split risk opportunity for investors.

Ranjan Unka says 75 View Road is strategically located in the heart of the Wairau Valley’s commercial precinct with good transport links to central Auckland, Takapuna and Albany making it very accessible for staff and customers.

“The Wairau Valley is one of the North Shore’s longest established commercial and industrial areas, and has experienced a diversification of activities in more recent times from its predominantly industrial base. This is especially so on Wairau Road which now has a mixture of showroom, bulk retail and smaller retail outlets as well as car sales yards.”

A Giltrap Holden dealership is located next door to 75 View Road and directly opposite, on the other side of View Road, is the Wairau Junction Retail Centre. This is a recently redeveloped food and beverage and convenience retail centre with 22 tenancies which have been unit titled and sold off individually to investors.

A wide range of bulk retail outlets are located along nearby Link Drive while massive Pak’nSave, Bunnings and Mitre10 stores are also situated close to Wairau Road.

Longer term, Ranjan Unka says 75 View Road’s level, rectangular site, with dual access ways, could lend itself to a staged partial or full redevelopment.

“The newer building at the rear of the site has shorter term leases than the front building so this part of the property could potentially be more intensively redeveloped first.

 “Alternatively, the next owner could simply focus on adding value to the existing premises and tenancy mix, with the underlying land value also likely to keep increasing.”