Queen St building ideally located for CBD regeneration
A 13-level office building on Auckland’s Queen Street is being marketed as an opportunity to capitalise on the regeneration of the Auckland CBD midtown area.
Situated on 1738 square metres of freehold land just south of Victoria St, the building at 238 Queen St has dual frontages to Queen and Lorne streets, along with leases to three governmentfunded educational institutes and several retailers, anchored by Australian retail heavyweight Cotton On.
This gave the asset a very strong foundation from which to deliver additional value to its new owner, Warren Hutt of CBRE said.
The building included a high car parking ratio for the area, with 50 car parks on level two accessed off Lorne St.
The office floors enjoy excellent natural light, with functional floor plates of 612sqm each, Hutt said.
‘‘Eighty per cent of all leasing deals in central Auckland are for floor plates under 700sqm, so these offices are ideally sized in the highest demand bracket for many firms searching for CBD office space.’’
Constructed in the 1980s, the 9789sqm building had achieved 100% of new building standard following a detailed seismic assessment, even though it has not undergone any retrofitted seismic strengthening, he said.
CBRE broker Brent McGregor said the sale offered investors a compelling opportunity to acquire a value-add project of significant scale at a time when there were few other CBD office buildings on the market.
‘‘This asset presents a notable opportunity to refurbish and reposition a solidly-built office and retail building, which is wellplaced to benefit from the regeneration of the midtown area as the opening of the City Rail Link draws closer,’’ McGregor said.
‘‘The property is well leased, providing stable income while the purchaser plans their programme of improvement works.’’
In response to the upcoming opening of Aotea Station, which will have an entrance just 200m from 238 Queen St, neighbouring landlords were already busy working on building improvements to capture value from the expected uplift to the area as the City Rail Link opens, said McGregor.
A further opportunity to add value to 238 Queen St existed in the office spaces, currently leased at well below market rent levels. A refurbishment could easily provide for a significant income increase, McGregor said.
‘‘With the office floors underrented, this asset will be regarded as good value buying, perfectly placed for repositioning to attract small to medium sized professional firms looking for a Queen St address.’’