Livestock genetics HQ property for sale breeds plenty of interest
The land and building housing the New Zealand headquarters for an internationally owned and operated livestock genetics breeding bio tech company have been placed on the market for sale.
The property in the Waikato rural services town of Morrinsville is occupied by Canadian-owned livestock breeding research and artificial insemination company Semex, whose services are used by beef and diary producers around the world to increase milk output, calving numbers, and stock unit weights.
In New Zealand, Semex has sales agents operating in the Waikato, Taranaki, Wairarapa, Marlborough, Canterbury, Otago and Southland provinces. The company’s suite of herd improvement services is delivered nationwide from the Morrinsville offices and warehouse facility.
Now the freehold land and building housing Semex at 32 Lorne St are being marketed for sale at auction on June 25 through Bayleys Hamilton. Salespeople Josh Smith and Daniel Keene said the Semex NZ headquarters premises was constructed in 2015 and had a new building standards rating of 100 percent.
The 330sq m Morrinsville premises sit on some 716sq m of flat freehold land and are leased to Semex through until 2024 with two further three-year rights of renewal generating annual rental of $30,480 plus GST and operating expenditure.
Smith said the single-storey Lorne St property was strategically located in the heart of one of New Zealand’s foremost dairy production provinces and supported an established farming clientele throughout the country.
“As one of the Waikato province’s primary rural services towns, Morrinsville sustains multiple agricultural-support businesses and activities — ranging from veterinary clinics and farm and equipment suppliers such as Farmlands, Farm Source and PGG Wrightson, through to a Fonterra production plant,” he said.
“Semex is an integral part of New Zealand’s agribusiness improvement sector — so much so, that under the recent Covid-19 lockdown restrictions the company was officially deemed by the Government to be an essential services provider, meaning that it could continue to trade throughout level 3 and 4 constraints.”
Featuring administrative offices with adjoining warehousing storage and dispatch area accessed by two full-height roller doors, the Lorne St premises are zoned commercial 8A under the Matamata Piako District Council plan.
Smith said the L-shaped section of land contained parking to the rear of the building, bordering a private sealed service lane running behind neighbouring warehousing and light industrial tenancies.
“Currently, this portion of the property is fenced off as it is not required for Semex’s operations. However, in the future it would be quite simple to remove the fencing to enable a dual entry/exit flow.
“The straightforward functional design and construction of the Semex HQ building, combined with its relatively modern age, mean that the venue is generally low maintenance.
“The property was originally designed and built for a local plumbing firm, and with the benefit of the dual vehicular-access points and sizeable warehousing space, this is certainly a back-up option any future owner of the site could be considering — with the flexibility of reverting the premises back to a ‘tradie’-based tenancy.”
Morrinsville has a population of approximately 7000 residents. In recognition of its importance to the country’s dairying sector, traffic roundabouts, parks and street corners in the town’s central business district are decorated with a herd of 45 painted life-sized cows.