Progressive to sell Dargaville store

Aussie-based Progressive Enterprises is selling its new Dargaville Countdown but will be staying on site as a tenant.

Just over a year after opening the new store, Progressive Enterprises is selling its Dargaville Countdown - but the supermarket will remain as a tenant.

The store, at the Victoria St-Totara St intersection, is one of four Countdown supermarkets for sale across the North Island in a move to unlock Progressive funds for reinvestment.

The 3500sq m, single-level, freehold supermarket, on 14,882sq m of land is for sale by an international private treaty sale process, which closes on Thursday, December 3.

The site was bought by Progressive in 2010 and the new supermarket was officially opened in August last year.

The property includes mezzanine offices, staff amenities and a plant room, and has an annual base rent of $1,118,000 plus GST.

The property is subject to a 20-year lease to the Australian-based Progressive Enterprises.

The other three Countdown stores for sale are in Auckland, Tauranga and Wellington.

Peter Herdson, national director of Colliers International's capital markets team, which was marketing the property, said the sale-and-leaseback arrangement would give Countdown rights of renewal for an extra 40 years from expiry of the initial lease term.

Countdown's general manager of property, Adrian Walker, told the Advocate the sale of the Dargaville site was part of Countdown's "normal capital management process enabling funds released from the sale of the property to be reinvested into the business".

"We purchased the Countdown Dargaville site in 2010, and demolished the former building following the build of the newer, more modern store on the same site," he said.