Outside buyers snap up buildings
Nearly $50 million worth of commercial property in Hastings has been snapped up by out-of-towners in the past few months. The most recent sale is the City Fitness building on the corner of Heretaunga St East and Hastings St North. It was sold to an Auckland investor for $6.5 million, representing a net rental return of $454,480. Next door, the Dollar King Ltd building was sold to an Auckland investor for $1.625m. The Warehouse building in Hastings has also been sold for a whopping $19.760m. The buyer was a Wellington private trust which has added to its The Park Mega Centre portfolio having just purchased Rebel Sport, Briscoes, Cracker Jack, Noel Leeming and Pet Stock buildings for $21m in a Bayleys tender campaign. Rollo Vavasour of Bayleys Commercial said four sales totalling $48.885m underlined the very buoyant commercial property sector in Hastings and particularly the interest of national buyers in the city. He said the situation was a case of the sun and the moon aligning in Hawke’s Bay, with an economy being driven by a horticulture boom, expanding tourism, traditional sheep and dairy farming, and people moving to Hawke’s Bay from the major cities. Vavasour said there had been several office leasings in the area in recent weeks. In one case a new tenancy received two competing lease offers on the same day. He felt demand in Eastern Hastings was at least as great as in Havelock North. This situation was only going to continue with the recent purchase and current redevelopment of the Hawke’s Bay Today site by the Hansen Group, he said. Bayleys and Hansen Group were already dealing with substantial office inquiry for this development which is due for completion in 12 months. Warren Ladbrook of Opera Properties Limited, who sold City Fitness and Dollar King, said the interest by out-of-towners was a vote of confidence in the region.