Developers eye automotive land
The land and buildings sustaining one of Auckland’s largest combined secondhand car sales outlets and automotive spare parts breakers, is on the market for sale.
Brokers see potential for it to become a new urban hospitality hub.
Bayleys South Auckland salespeople Piyush Kumar and Peter Migounoff are selling the property, at 325A-327 Great South Rd, which has been occupied for past six years by the Osaka Cars and ANZ Auto Parts yard.
Used to this point as a base for selling Japanese-imported vehicles and breaking down complete cars into saleable spare parts, the Manurewa property is now being offered with vacant possession.
“What’s more, the large property is ripe for development, being located in what is an interesting part of the city to say the very least,” says Kumar.
He points out the existing 1.68ha automotive site sits beside the former Manukau Golf Club, a facility which was replaced several years ago by Fletcher Living’s upmarket Waiata Shores residential enclave.
It will be sold through a tender process, closing at 3pm on August 7, and features in Bayleys’ latest Total Property portfolio magazine.
The property for sale comprises two freehold titles — both zoned business light industry — and these may be purchased either jointly or individually. The smaller of these two titles has an area of 3288sq m; the larger one is 1.35 hectares.
“The vendor is offering a sixmonth settlement date that would allow a new owner to take possession of entirely vacated property early next year,” says Kumar.
“In the current format it has vast open spaces packed and stacked with an immense selection of cars which are there to be sold and dismantled. There are also eight garage/ warehouse-style buildings.
“These buildings would be eminently useable for industrial purposes in the short to medium term, but safe to say the structures are fairly dated and are not necessarily the most efficient use for this site long term.
“Accordingly, the site has been identified as prime for total redevelopment into a more efficient land-use activity. A convenient location less than a kilometre away from on-ramps to the Southern Motorway makes the site an attractive proposition for developers or owner-occupiers involved in the transport, warehousing or freight logistics sectors requiring large premises.”
Kumar says the unified sites would suit a hospitality hub capable of servicing three separate large-scale property developments within the immediate vicinity, all of which are designed to accommodate the city’s growing population.
The trio of multi-billion-dollar development projects which are nearby, include:
The already-emerging Waiata Shores subdivision, separated from the land by the Papakura Stream. On completion, this enclave will encompass a mixture of about 500 terraced, duplex or stand-alone homes.
The 51-hectare Drury Town Centre project being undertaken by NZX-listed Kiwi Property over a 20-year period.
The 360-hectare housing and business park development, also in Drury, being driven by infrastructure giant Stevenson.
“Creating a food and beverage hub with multiple operators in this one location would satisfy the demands of the growing residential population.
“But it would also service the hospitality needs for staff working in the substantial number adjacent commercial and industrial businesses located between Mahia Rd to the west and Spartan Rd to the east,” Kumar says. “Conceptually, a new hospitality destination could be based on the models already operating at Brickworks in New Lynn or Te Pumanawa Square at the NorthWest Shopping Centre.
“At present, the nearest such hospitality amenity for the local business community is quite some distance away in the Manukau City precinct, so there is a huge gap in the market for a local dining hub to service the Manurewa commercial workforce.”
Migounoff says an alternative option for the Great South Rd addresses, subject to a rezoning of the site by Auckland Council, would be as a medium to high density housing project.
“With the KiwiBuild affordable home initiative entering a new phase earlier this month taking in huge numbers of registrations from potential buyers, there is now a more urgent need to locate as many suitable construction sites as possible for scaled residential developments in Auckland to proceed,” Migounoff says.
“Already, less than 100 metres away, we are seeing the major transformation of former green space recreational land into a whole new subdivision.
“The potential creation of footbridges over Papakura Creek would allow for the expansion of that subdivision, which could then be totally aligned with the KiwiBuild ethos of delivering affordable homes.”