Trade dropoff leads to 'for sale' sign

The Greenmeadows building housing PW Dancewear and Video Ezy is for sale. Photo / Supplied

The rise of internet movie viewing has seen a fall in business for Greenmeadows Video Ezy, which is on a month-by-month lease at its premises.

The two-storey building on the corner of Auckland Rd and Gloucester St is for sale, with the secondary tenant also facing a changed retail environment.

The 550m2 building sits on some 850m2 of land sharing a boundary with New World Greenmeadows and across the road from the large recreational space of Anderson Park.

Bayleys Napier agent Sam MacDonald said Video Ezy, as with most DVD rental outlets, was finding trading increasingly harder as greater numbers of New Zealanders moved away from hiring DVDs to watching films through legal downloading providers such as Lightbox, Quickflix, and Netflix.

Children's fancy dress and dance-costume business PW Dancewear was "at the bow-wave of global retailing", downsizing its physical presence to a high foot traffic CBD location, while simultaneously upscaling its online offering.

"As a result, the building has been placed on the market for sale - with the initial target buyer market identified as owner/occupiers seeking a retail presence on a high volume traffic route," he said.

It has 10 off-street car parks, with additional street parking available.

"With the retail centre of Taradale some 1.5km away, any new neighbourhood-focused cafe would have a virtually unrivalled trade catchment area.

There is no other real local alternative for grabbing a barista-made flat white and a plate of eggs benedict."

Fellow agent Daniel Moffitt said its big big selling point was its high profile corner location on a high volume intersection.

"It has been mooted that, subject to the granting of council consent, the installation of billboard signage on the building's apex and along the Gloucester Street frontage would bring on a totally new revenue stream," he said.

PW Dancewear would consider signing a 12-month lease while it secured new premises to move to, he said.

"For potential buyers looking at either redevelopment or owner/occupier scenarios, these two rental steams would underpin holding income while appropriate redevelopment plans were drawn up and council consenting approvals were sought." Or new owners could use this to give themselves more time to move in, he said.