Auckland city block has redevelopment potential

The freehold land site and building for sale at 117 Vincent St. Photo / Supplied

A city-centre office block in Auckland with potential for a mixed-use commercial and residential property redevelopment is on the market.

Under the Auckland Plan, the property is zoned Business City Centre. Permitted activities under this classification allow for accommodation and boarding house operations, community care, food and beverage businesses, education providers, office or retail space, healthcare firms, or retirement village services.

The 364sq m of freehold land and 736.7sq m building at 117 Vincent St are being marketed for sale by tender through Bayleys Auckland, with tenders closing at 4pm on August 8. The property features in Bayleys' latest Total Property magazine out now.

Bayleys Auckland salespeople James Chan and Owen Ding says the property is built in 1965 and has a new building standard rating of 40 per cent. A legal vehicle and pedestrian access way linking Hobson St and Vincent St runs along one side.

Each level of the three-storey building is 245sq m. The ground level is configured to accommodate 12 covered car parks, accessed from Vincent St, while a further six uncovered car parks are available on a sealed yard to the rear of the premises.

In its current two-tenant layout, the building's upper two levels are accessed by a shared stairwell, with the main entry from Vincent St.

Both floors were fitted out seven years ago and are a mix of open plan, small offices, and meeting rooms, with each level having access to their own toilet amenities.

Building design firm bsw architects occupies both floors on a lease expiring at the end of 2020, and pays rent of $100,000 plus GST per annum.

"There is the potential to either retain the building in its current floor plan serving two tenancies, or completely redesign one of the floors to accommodate residential accommodation," Chan says.

"The offices in their current state are of a C-grade standard, meaning they could be let 'as is' with any per square metre rate reflecting that grading, or the space could be subjected to modernisation to an A-grade standard suitable for a medium-sized business tenancy."

Chan says plans have already been drawn up by the former owner for a six-storey, mixed-use commercial and residential development. Under those plans upper levels could accommodate one, two, and three-bedroom units on each floor.

Council planning regulations dictate that one-bedroom units in Auckland must be a minimum of 45sq m, while two-bedroom units must be 70sq m , and three bedroom units 90sq m.

"Auckland's central business district is continually undergoing intensive redevelopment, particularly over the past four years with the council's stated commitment to city-wide densification in the residential sector," Ding says.

"This has seen a number of older buildings, which had solely housed commercial or retail tenancies, now being converted to either apartment blocks or mixed-used complexes. "Consequently, small stand-alone buildings such as this are becoming a growing rarity."

One of the first examples of this latest wave of commercial-to-residential conversions was undertaken at 132 Vincent St, opposite the central police station, in the former headquarters of infrastructure services company Beca Carter.

After selling in late 2011, the tower has been converted into 62 contemporary-styled luxury apartments.

"The tree-lined character of Vincent St automatically lends itself to the creation of apartments in buildings such as number 117," Ding says.

The building has a street frontage of 90.9m and was built in a standard concrete pillar and steel framing, with air-conditioning ducted to both levels of office space.

"Any modernisation of the existing structure and interior to a commercial layout could simultaneously include a strengthening of the building to a much higher degree of new building standard (NBS)," he says.

Vincent St is just a few hundred metres away from the 'Spaghetti Junction' motorway interchange linking Auckland CBD with the city's southern and western suburbs, and less than 1km from the motorway on-ramp to the North Shore.