The Property

• Prominent industrial building fronting busy Centennial Highway with a building area of 2168sqm on 2447sqm land

• Comprising a ground floor food-grade warehouse with commercial kitchen, production and distribution facilities, 800sqm of first-floor office and administration space, 33 on-site car parks, and rear workshop

• Located 200m from the Ngauranga State Highway Interchange

• Zoned Business 2

• Potential net income of $435,000pa + GST

• Offered for lease or sale

• Sold with vacant possession

Quick Look

• National Total Property marketing campaign – sold by Tender

• Interest generated via Bayleys’ databases, nationwide Total Property magazine, plus print, web and social media campaigns

• Strong enquiry from local owner-occupier and investor buyers, with five tenders received

• Sold for $6,500,000, showing a 6.7% yield on potential net income

• Purchased by an owner-occupier via a staged deal which will see them lease the property initially.

The Story

For eight years, this property was the headquarters and production/distribution facility for food retailer and café operator Wishbone until the company was liquidated last year.

The high-spec’d food-grade premises had great scale for a food-related business, but Fraser Press and Simon Butler of Bayleys Wellington Commercial were mindful that with the shortage of industrial space region-wide, the specialised existing fitout may not suit all parties.

“While selling to a food-aligned business was, in our view, the best result possible given the specialist fitout, we explored options to revert the ground floor tenancy to a versatile workshop/ warehouse to maximise the value of the property’s strategic location.,” explained Fraser.

“Two of the tenders we received were from food-related business owners keen to leverage the multi-million dollar food-grade fitout which was completed around 10 years ago. “The successful tenderer has an existing food business and purchasing this property allows them to bypass the rigorous and costly design-build process for new premises and the deal was structured to allow the buyer time to transition as owner via a lease-back scenario.”

Fraser says he was rapt to achieve another successful sale for the vendors, adding that repeat business founded on trust and results is central to the Bayleys’ way.

Vendor Comment

The long-time Wellington-based owners of the property liked Bayleys’ creative thinking when presenting the opportunity to prospective buyers.

Having owned the property for more than 16 years and now winding up their commercial property investment business, the spokesperson for the vendors says the Centennial Highway property was the final portfolio asset to divest and Bayleys was the right firm to handle the sale.

“Previous good experience with Bayleys and a good personal relationship with Fraser Press was behind the decision to list with them,” he said.

“Fraser and Simon canvassed the market thoroughly and offered a range of options to potential purchasers which meant all bases were covered.

“We were kept well-informed of the status and progress of the prospective purchasers so we were not under any illusions regarding the number of tenderers or the potential outcome.”

With 2023 being a year of economic flux and the commercial property market having some ups and downs, the vendor says Bayleys got the result they were after. “We were very pleased with the sale price taking into account the economic environment.”