Rare opportunity for foothold in Queenstown’s retail strip
A prime piece of Queenstown’s retail landscape is being made available to investors with the sale of 17 Rees St, a CBD commercial property fully leased to well-known Australasian retail brand Platypus Shoes.
Totalling some 127.7sq m, the building comprises a regular-shaped 96.5sq m tenancy on the ground floor with 31.2sq m of mezzanine on a freehold 107sq m site.
Colliers has been exclusively appointed to market the property for sale by deadline private treaty closing on 5 August 2021 unless sold prior.
Rory O’Donnell, commercial broker at Colliers Queenstown who is marketing the property, says the opportunity to acquire a premium asset such as this seldom becomes available.
“The tightly held nature of Queenstown’s CBD property ownership means this is a unique opportunity to acquire a premium asset at an accessible price point in the context of our CBD.
“This property has strong investment fundamentals underpinned by a new seven-year lease to Australasian retail brand, Platypus Shoes, which is part of Accent Group Ltd.
“The lease to Platypus is returning $235,000 per annum plus GST and outgoings with built-in annual growth of 3 per cent throughout the sevenyear term. Discerning investors will note the added security of a corporate guarantee from Accent Group Ltd.”
Mary-Jo Hudson, who is marketing the property alongside O’Donnell, says Rees St is in Queenstown’s highly sought-after and high foot-traffic location referred to as the ‘Golden Square’, which is bordered by Rees, Ballarat (The Mall), Shotover and Camp streets.
“The property is in the core of Queenstown’s CBD retail precinct, just a short stroll from Queenstown Bay and the lakefront. It’s surrounded by an excellent mix of international, national and local retail brands.
“With almost 6m of prime street frontage, the property benefits from a high-profile position on Rees St, one of the main through roads to Queenstown Bay and the lakefront.”
O’Donnell adds that central Queenstown is undergoing a major transformation with a facelift to the CBD currently under way that will add further appeal to this investment.
“In June 2020 the Government announced $85m in funding for shovel-ready projects in Queenstown that includes $35m toward town centre upgrades.
“Rees St forms part of the council’s $55m project to enhance the streetscape of core pedestrian areas into more attractive, functional and user-friendly walkways through the CBD. The vision for the central city is to create a seamless path for pedestrians as well as vehicles at a lower speed limit with new paving, outdoor furniture and an expansion of al fresco dining options.”
Hudson notes that now is the perfect time to capitalise on Queenstown’s growth while demand has halted temporarily due to Covid. “Prior to Covid, there was zero vacancy in ground-floor retail property in downtown Queenstown. As a result, retail space commanded very high rents and there were very few sales of prime commercial properties in the CBD as owners held on to their assets.
“While a massive decrease in international visitors has had a detrimental impact on tourism numbers for now, Queenstown’s property market has proved remarkably resilient and the long-term growth projection remains strong.
“Properties of this nature on such a covetable street represent a rare opportunity that may not have been possible during Queenstown’s heyday.”