Red Baron’s flight leaves vacant site

The high-profile land and buildings which previously housed one of Auckland’s foremost motorcycle sales and repair dealerships has been placed on the market.

For 25 years, the property in Grey Lynn was home to the Red Baron motorcycle business which had the franchise to sell and repair Yamaha and Kawasaki brand machines.

The business closed earlier this year, and now the prominent twostorey premises, sitting on 987sq m of freehold land, is for sale. The site is zoned Business-Mixed Use, allowing for the construction of buildings up to

18m high, with tenancies that could include offices, retailers, food and beverage outlets, and residences.

The property, at 299 Great North Rd, is being marketed by James Were, Nicolas Ching and Scott Kirk of Bayleys and is for sale by tender, closing at 4pm on May 16.

Kirk says the property has a raft of potential future uses ranging from continuing to operate as a retail site, through to a complete redevelopment into an apartment block with street-level retail.

He says the former Red Baron building was constructed in 1968 and has a new build standard (NBS) rating of 70 per cent. The basement has

518sq m of workshop area, and the ground floor contains 647sq m of open-plan space, and 270sq m of mezzanine offices and showroom amenities.

“With ample customer and staff parking at the rear of the site, accessed off Grosvenor St, the building could easily be refurbished to continue its retail heritage.

“The retail appeal is enhanced by the considerable free-parking immediately outside the property,” Kirk says.

“The multiple flooring levels within the structure mean that with, some internal alterations, the building could be reconfigured into several separate tenancies.”

Were says from a redevelopment perspective, the 299 Great North Rd site could replicate the emergence of similar mixed-used addresses along this stretch of Great North Rd overlooking Grey Lynn.

“The past decade has seen a major building stock modernisation programme along Great North Rd — unveiling new retail premises ranging from several prestige car yards through to the opening of the nearby bulk retail Bunnings store,” he says.

“Virtually all the recently constructed mixed-use sites on the western aspect of Great North Rd feature either commercial office space or apartments on their upper levels.

“The most obvious is directly across the road from the old Red Baron workshops on the intersection of Bond St, where The Aston apartment block is located,” Were says.

“This modern complex has retail premises at street level and up to three levels of chic residential dwellings above. Indicatively, a twobedroom/two-bathroom/two carpark unit within The Aston is now on the market for an asking price of $1,195,000.”

Ching says 299 Great North Rd is about 10 minutes’ walk from the hospitality hubs of Ponsonby, K Rd, and Kingsland, and on a main arterial bus route into the CBD.

Grey Lynn village and its full range of retail amenities is less than a kilometre away to the west.

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