Ben Cook has left here for Australia and is selling eight properties in an August 25 auction. Photo / Supplied
Ben Cook has left here for Australia and is selling eight properties in an August 25 auction. Photo / Supplied
One of the country’s biggest private retail real estate investors is quitting New Zealand for Australia - sparking a $100m sell-off.
Ben Cook boasts a portfolio stretching from Auckland to Central Otago including a string of Countdown supermarkets, and Bunnings in New Lynn, Hamilton and Westgate.
He also owns iconicAuckland buildings like the Ponsonby Post Office, Farmers on Queen St in the CBD, Northcote’s Engine Room restaurant and Britomart’s red brick Brew on Quay.
But he is now using his Sydney home as a base and says he doesn’t plan on returning to New Zealand, cutting his holdings in one $50 million-plus auction alone next month.
“I’ve had a house in Sydney for 22 years and been living between both cities during that time,” Cook told the Weekend Herald. “I just prefer Aussie now that kids have finished school.”
Cook said he spent half the year in the UK and said the move away from New Zealand was for a variety of reasons: “It’s a mix of things: business, family and lifestyle.”
The century-old Ponsonby Post Office is owned by Cook Property. Photo / file
It comes as pressure piles on the Government in election year with National playing up the notion that New Zealand is a country with a bleak future. That view has been compounded by criticism from the likes of Zuru founder Nick Mowbray and broadcaster Paul Henry, who criticised the Government’s increased borrowing.
But Cook insists he feels nothing negative about his home country.
“I love NZ. I think it’s the best place in the world for lifestyle and outdoors,” Cook said. “Regarding Sydney, I’ve had a house there since 2001 and have been dividing my time between the two cities since then. I’ve been living in Sydney about three months of the year on average. It’s therefore been a long association.”
Eight properties valued by councils at $54 million and connected to the founder of Cook Property Group will be auctioned later next month in one of the largest retail real estate offerings this year. Supermarkets, a restaurant, shops, a Warehouse store and BP are among the properties in that lot.
Cook is also selling the Auckland CBD Farmers building on Queen St, the ex-Whitcoulls Building which hosted Santa and is valued at $46m.
As it was - Whitcoulls building on Queen St, now tenanted by Farmers. Photo / Greg Bowker
Asked why he was selling, Cook told the Herald he had moved permanently and wouldn’t return.
“Some properties are co-owned with people who have left New Zealand to live in other countries. Some are owned solely by my interests. I’ve spent about four weeks in NZ in the past two years, so will be reducing my holdings in NZ and looking to expand in Australia where I reside full-time now,” Cook said.
Cook first appeared on the NBR Rich List in 2016 and his holdings were estimated to be worth more than $300m, less debt.
In 2015, he set New Zealand’s house price record that year, buying a waterfront Herne Bay home from endoscopic surgeon John Dunn and his wife, Rose for $24m. That place on a 4032sq m site came with its own helipad
The house near Home Bay Reserve faces north towards Watchman Island and the Harbour Bridge and is across the water from the Chelsea Sugar Refinery. It stands in an area once nicknamed the Herne Bay Sultanate after the Sultan of Brunei bought houses there.
The richlister also enjoys a colourful life away from business - he has been photgraphed rubbing shoulders with singer Lionel Richie and Hollywood actor Samuel L Jackson, boating in the Mediterranean for several months, and enjoying the summer sunshine in Monaco.
Cook has not only been selling, but also invested money in New Zealand in the past few years. He and Kurt Gibbons developed Herne Bay’s new $50 Countdown Metro at 1 Kelmarna Ave on the site of the former Stables.
They hold the new Jervois Rd shop in their jointly-owned company Manhattan Capital, which Gibbons said had around $250m of real estate, including other supermarkets and shops.
The Heraldreported last year that Cook had struck a deal with Woolworths which had committed to a 12-year lease on the 1800sq m store with 54 car parks where a construction contract has been let.
Gibbons said Herne Bay didn’t have a supermarket and the business had struck a long-term lease with Woolworths.
Gibbons said then he and Cook had been working on the property for nearly two years and had repositioned it so it was ready for sale directly after settlement.
“We have subdivided it and also leased out more space to Countdown. We’re now just looking at our options,” Gibbons said last year.
The big sell-off
Real estate agents, including Tim Turner, of NAI Harcourts North Shore, are advertising eight properties for sale, all to be auctioned on August 25.
1. Retail/office premises, 2 Hurstmere Rd, Takapuna, advertised as a “split risk” with seven tenancies, a 552sq m retail area and 73sq m of offices, six car parks on an 842sq m site, rating valuation 2021 $10.7m;
2. Shop, 4 Hurstmere Rd, Takapuna, a 332sq m freehold site with a two-level building, prime retail frontage, returning $332,000 annually, 2021 rating valuation $4.9m;
3. Countdown supermarket, 3a Whitford Brown Ave, Papakowhai, Porirua, Wellington, capital value $10.5m;
4. Countdown, 147 Kimbolton Rd, Feilding, returning $676,000 annually, leased to Woolworths New Zealand on a six-year term from April 2022 with rights of renewal, 2023 rates valuation $11.2m;
5. The Warehouse, 10 Limerick St, Alexandra, Central Otago, bringing in annual rent of $415,000 on a seven-year lease from March 2021, on a 3783sq m site, “the store covers a vast catchment area and a major retail destination”, rating valuation in 2022 was $5.2m;
7. BP service station, 47-55 Jervois Rd, Herne Bay, returning $150,000 annually, four years remaining on the initial 10-year lease with additional rights of renewal through until 2046, 2021 rating valuation $3.5m;
8. The Engine Room restaurant, 115 Queen St, Northcote, a 503sq m freehold corner site on the Barlety St corner, leased to the same restaurant since 2006, returning $129,000 annually, 2021 rating valuation $2.5m;
Anne Gibson has been the Herald’s property editor for 23 years, has won many awards, written books and covered property extensively here and overseas.
