TV3 headquarters for sale

The offices and studios of MediaWorks are for sale, after the media company announced its plan to sell off its TV arm.

The property, which include a 4358sq m freehold landholding in Eden Tce, is in a position to benefit from the City Rail Link (CRL) and rezoning under the Unitary Plan.

Held in six titles, the land and six buildings — at 2 Flower St, 3 Flower St, 40 New North Rd, 44 New North Rd, 46-48 New North Rd, and 52 New North Rd — are an opportunity for a buyer to acquire a substantial portfolio in Auckland's city fringe.

Bayleys central Auckland commercial sales team members Cameron Melhuish, Layne Harwood and Lloyd Budd are marketing the Eden Tce properties, which will be sold as one lot by expressions of interest, closing 4pm, November 21.

Budd says: “We believe this site could be reshaped into something pretty special given the underlying fundamentals of the location.”

Harwood adds: “In its current guise, the landholding is underdeveloped,  however there is significant potential to upgrade the main studio building which is developed over five levels and has a net lettable floor area of 6394sq m.

“The balance of the site comprises smaller buildings that could be refurbished in the short term but would ultimately provide a higher and best use through complete redevelopment.”

Five of the six titles make up a sizeable and flexible parcel with multiple frontages to Flower, Nikau and Korari Sts and New North Rd, while the final title has corner profile to Flower and Nikau Sts.

Melhuish says full-site redevelopment is highly likely. “In our view, council has got it right here with a long-term view of creating higher-intensity mixed-use environments supported by and aligned to resilient public transport options,” he says.

“Around 72 per cent of the site now has Business-Mixed Use zoning, which is the most favourable classification for city-fringe development as it’s conducive to a wide range of activities, including residential use as-of-right.

“This portion of the portfolio also has the benefit of a height variation control, enabling development up to 21m high.”

The balance of the portfolio, being those sites with frontage to New North Rd, has a Business-Town Centre zoning. This also promotes more intensive development and it has the benefit of a height control variation, in this instance up to 18m high.

“It is foreseeable that redevelopment could include ground-floor retail with residential above, in-line with council’s intention to see functional, mixed-use precincts emerging along city fringe arterials,” says Melhuish.

The property is being sold with a leaseback to MediaWorks for three years. “Accordingly, a purchaser has time to formulate a longer-term vision  for the site which may include refurbishing of the existing buildings in part, planning a full mixed-use redevelopment of the site or potentially selling-down the individual titles at some later date,” Budd says.

As part of the CRL project, Mount Eden Station will be redeveloped and land that has been acquired in the immediate vicinity will provide potential for more than 100,000sq m of residential and commercial investment. The station will cover both the existing Kingsland to Grafton line and the new CRL Mount Eden to Karangahape Rd line.

“The main access to the new station for the city-bound platforms will be at Ruru St, which is just a block or so away from the properties we are selling,” says Melhuish.

“With the originally proposed new underground station in Newton, near Symonds St, now shelved and the focus for this end of town very much on the Mount Eden CRL amenity, there’s plenty of interest being shown in property in the catchment area.

“This would have to be one of the biggest growth nodes across the city and we expect to see a real renaissance in Eden Tce on the back of huge infrastructural investment.”