Corner cafe site a bottler
The land and buildings housing one of New Zealand’s most recognisable cafes are for sale.
Paeroa’s L&P Cafe, Bar and Brasserie boasts a six-metre replica soft-drink bottle – one of two in the Waikato town – outside its front doors.
The sale comes at a time of growing interest in property in Paeroa and its nearby Hauraki towns, according to Paeroa Harcourts branch manager Connie Muir.
She said buyer demand for residential property in Paeroa was strong, with the relative affordability an attractive factor.
‘‘The average sale price for residential property in Paeroa for the year to April is $346,329 and about 17 per cent of sales are to people moving into the area.’’
Muir said there was a shortage of houses available as a result, with 22 per cent of interest coming from first-home buyers, again driven by affordability.
‘‘Paeroa is . . . at the junction of three state highways, conveniently within a 11⁄2 -hour drive of three main cities. Paeroa is centrally located to enjoy the Coromandel Peninsula, the Bay of Plenty and the Waikato.’’
Bayleys’ northern Waikato commercial property specialist, Josh Smith, covers all the rural towns from Huntly and Pokeno in the west, to Waihi in the east.
He said the area’s location on State Highway 2 between Auckland and Tauranga meant most settlements were expanding.
‘‘There’s a lot of interest coming in from Auckland, the Waikato and Bay of Plenty. We’ve had the big lift in prices and they’re holding firm,’’ he said.
Jo Stewart of Bayleys Tauranga said the cafe building was on the town’s main arterial route, which was also SH2.
It comprised a 444-squaremetre building on 2546sqm of land, providing ample parking space for customers. The landmark property occupies a high-profile corner site at the northern entrance to the Paeroa township.
‘‘The single-storey building has two tenancies, with the anchor tenant being the iconic L&P Cafe, Bar and Brasserie, which underwent a stylish and stunning refurbishment in 2015,’’ Stewart said.
Cafe operator Cloud 9 Group is on a three-year lease in the premises, with a further threeyear right of renewal, generating a net rental of $53,352 plus GST.
The adjacent vacant space has an estimated annual rentalgenerating capacity of $19,000 plus GST per annum.
Each year Paeroa hosts a number of events including the Battle of the Streets motorcycle races, the V8 Show and Swap Meet, and the Paeroa Highland Games and Tattoo.
Paeroa is only minutes away from the Karangahake Gorge, and the popular Hauraki Rail Trail is accessible from Paeroa, Thames, Te Aroha and Waihi/Waikino.
The former L&P bottling plant in Station Rd, Paeroa, sold at auction last year for $420,000. It was closed after production was moved to Auckland in the 1980s.