Golden opportunity beckons investors
Each year, three million customers visit the shopping centre at the gateway to the Coromandel Peninsula
by Colin Taylor Goldfields Shopping Centre in Thames, anchored by a red shed The Warehouse and including 30 specialty stores, has been put on the market for sale by private treaty closing on May 3.
Savills capital markets senior executive Kevin Richards and investment sales broker Daniel Byrne are marketing the property in conjunction with Fiona Newton of Match Realty.
‘‘ The shopping centre will appeal to investors looking for a weighty provincial asset that has room for improvement through add value growth from tenancies,’’ Richards says.
Owned by a syndicate, Goldfields i s on a site adjacent to Queen and Mary Sts and i s the only shopping centre on Coromandel Peninsula with no competition in the wider catchment area including the Hauraki Plains.
Goldfields was built in the 1990s and has a net lettable retail area of about 8169sq m plus 550 car parks sitting on a 1.6ha site. The Warehouse opened its doors in 1997 and covers 45 per cent of the shopping centre’s retail area.
A Pak’nSave supermarket on an adjacent site shares Goldfields’ car park and contributes a high number of the three million customers who pass through the centre’s doors annually
Byrne says although the supermarket is on a separate site it is effectively another anchor tenant for the centre.
‘‘ The benefit of having two major national tenants sitting side- by- side in this location is considerable from a trading perspective.’’
The predominantly single level shopping centre also carries 30 specialty stores covering 4917sq m of space and includes household names such as McDonald’s, Shanton, Bed Bath & Beyond, Warehouse Stationery, Postie Plus, T& T and Paper Plus. Local retailers carrying a range of general speciality and convenience goods make up the tenancy schedule.
Extensive refurbishments were carried out in 1999 to add a garden centre to The Warehouse and to provide two cinema screens, which are no longer operating.
More recently the centre was reconfigured again to provide premises for Shanton and Bed, Bath & Beyond, resulting in a smaller size tenancy for Warehouse Stationery. About five years ago alterations were carried out to the front of the centre to incorporate a McDonald’s fast food restaurant, including a McCafe and drive- through.
The centre is air- conditioned and features a popular high dome foodcourt with tenancies around its perimeter. Two wings extend either side of the foodcourt. The Warehouse dominates the southern wing along with Postie Plus, while Warehouse Stationery, Paper Plus, Shanton and Bed, Bath & Beyond lie within the northern wing.
A mezzanine contains the centre’s management office and former cinemas.
Richards says it is the second big neighbourhood provincial shopping centre to come on to the market in the past three months through Savills. The agency recently sold Palm Beach Plaza Shopping Centre in Papamoa for a price rumoured to be in excess of $ 30 million.
Byrne says Goldfields has always benefited from being geographically constrained. ‘‘ As the only shopping centre in the Thames Coromandel and Hauraki districts, it experiences fairly consistent trade. Surprisingly, the recent opening of The Warehouse as a new stand- alone store in Whitianga has had little impact on the trade performance of Goldfields.’’
Match Realty director Fiona Newton says with a little attention from a new ownerwith shopping centre experience, Goldfields can thrive.
‘‘ The Warehouse has indicated it is keen to remain at Goldfields in the long term and has made it clear it is keen to work with a new owner to improve the function and aesthetics of the store,’’ says Newton.
‘‘ The opportunity is there to have a robust discussion and sign- off on a medium- term strategic plan to bring the centre up- to- date to attract more and different retailers.
‘‘ This is fundamental to the longterm prospects of Goldfields as there has been recent interest from a significant national retailer in moving to the centre.’’
Goldfields’ immediate catchment encompasses 26,000 residents but during the summer holidays turnover surges with the population swelling to 137,000 — more than five times the established residents.