Rich-lister property developer Ben Cook has sold New Zealand’s largest Bunnings Warehouse for $51 million, OneRoof can reveal.
The 16,000sqm branch of the DIY retailer, which sits on a 21,200sqm site in Auckland’s Westgate shopping park, was bought by property investment firm Investore at the end of last month.
Investore announced on NZX that it had “entered into an unconditional agreement to acquire Bunnings Westgate, for an initial purchase price of $51 million, payable in cash”.
The NZX statement said the Bunnings deal was expected to settle in December 2024. Investore also announced it had sold two large retail properties, one in New Plymouth tenanted by Pak’nSave and the other in Invercargill tenanted by Woolworths, for $54.3m.
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Bunnings Westgate was one of several commercial properties Cook bought in 2020. The New Zealand Herald reported at the time that Cook’s purchases had a collective value of more than $100m, of which Bunnings’ market value was reported to be $70m.
The Westgate Bunnings had been listed with Colliers agents Blair Peterken, Josh Coburn and Shoneet Chand and first hit the market in November last year.
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The agents highlighted in their marketing that the property was leased to Bunnings in December 2020 for 12 years and earned $2.869m plus GST per year in rental income.
The Herald reported last year that Cook had moved to Australia and was selling off his New Zealand property assets. His commercial portfolio at the time included Countdown supermarkets, and two other Bunnings, one in New Lynn and another in Hamilton.
Cook made headlines in 2021 when he bought a yet-to-be finished Bunnings in Hervey Bay, Queensland, for A$58.6m, at a record yield of 4%.
He also owns one of the most expensive homes in New Zealand, a waterfront mansion in Herne Bay, which he bought in 2015 for $24m. His Waiheke bach has been on the market with Wall Real Estate since March last year.
Ben Cook is selling off his property portfolio. Photo / Supplied
Cook’s Countdown in Herne Bay, which he built with fellow rich-lister property developer Kurt Gibbons, is still on the market for sale.
In Australia, Bunnings stores are highly sought-after investments, with big box hardware stores now as desirable as supermarkets, with long leases and good sales growth. Many of these deals occur off-market.
Analysts said this was because there were more buyers demanding Bunnings assets, but few were available for sale. One property investment company, Charter Hall, has 66 of the stores in its portfolio, with an estimated value of A$3.7 billion, and paid A$65.3m for the biggest warehouse in New South Wales in February last year.
Colliers’ Peterken told OneRoof last year that the Westgate store was the largest in the country and considered the jewel in the crown.
“It’s in an area with huge growth, and big developments bringing on thousands of houses. Costco has chosen this area to move into,” he said, noting that local and international buyers had shown interest in the property.
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