Great opportunity to earn a crust
The sprawling site housing a plant that turned out some of New Zealand’s best-loved bakery products has gone up for sale.
Sale of the 3.6828ha property on Palmerston North’s Botanical Rd, until recently home to Ernest Adams and Irvines Pies, opens the way for another manufacturer to bring a new recipe to the industrial site.
Alternatively, it has been lauded for the outstanding ingredients it offers for redevelopment with medium-density housing.
The original buildings were constructed in 1950 to house the offices, laboratories and pharmaceutical factory of Glaxo Laboratories, which occupied the site until the mid-1990s.
Offered for sale with vacant possession through Bayleys, on behalf of Goodman Fielder, the freehold site with several large warehouse/manufacturing facilities, extensive yards and offices, is poised for a new chapter.
Angus Findlay of Bayleys Palmerston North said the sale represented an exciting crossroads, with investors, occupiers and developers investigating widely diverging futures for the site.
“This is a superb, proven operational manufacturing facility with cool stores, offices and gated security. A significant number of the buildings contain food-making plant, which could provide a unique opportunity for another business to move in and commence a similar operation at significant scale.
“Alternatively, the land will be keenly eyed by residential developers. Although it’s zoned Industrial, the property is surrounded by residential zoning and housing and Palmerston North City Council has given a positive indication that rezoning to residential would have strong support.
“The consensus is that this could be an outstanding medium-density housing redevelopment site,” Findlay said.
The freehold land and buildings at 136-142 Botanical Rd, Palmerston North, are being marketed for sale through Findlay, Karl Cameron of Bayleys Palmerston North and Bayleys national director logistics and infrastructure Scott Campbell. They will be sold by deadline private treaty closing on Thursday, October
26, unless sold earlier. Findlay said the site offered wellmaintained manufacturing facilities and office accommodation across several buildings with a total floor area of over 19,000sq m, along with an extensive secured yard, and parking for around 180 vehicles. An on-site power substation provides
2MW of electricity to the facility.