3M's landmark premises offer easy accessibility, writes Colin Taylor
KEY POINTS:
Manufacturer 3M will end 46 years on its landmark North Shore site in a year's time when it moves to premises in Albany and the existing 2.3 hectare property is sold.
The company is one of the world's biggest diversified technology companies, making and importing more than 54,000 products including its well-known home and office stationery adhesives Post-it and Scotch-Brite along with computer accessories, visual equipment and a wide range of medical, dental and safety tape products.
The company has operated its business from premises on the corner of Wairau Rd and Archers Rd since 1962. It is now moving to a new two-level, 3400sq m purpose-designed and built, four-star green-rated head office building at Apollo Drive in the Interplex business park.
The Fortune 500 company's 23,427sq m Wairau Valley site is being sold as 3M moves to stop manufacturing its foil tape product range at the site by the end of this year and is in the final throes of outsourcing its distribution operations to a logistics company.
New Zealand managing director Greg Brown says manufacturing is being transferred to a company facility off-shore to be closer to the majority of its suppliers and customers.
The company's Wairau Valley property is in four freehold titles and will be sold through Colliers International as one lot by private treaty closing on July 15. Colliers corporate sales broker Jason Seymour and directors Alan McMahon and Andrew Hiskens say vacant possession of the entire site will be given to a new buyer.
The company operates its business within 11,303sq m of office, laboratory, factory, and warehouse buildings and has 100 car parks on the site.
The company has been in New Zealand since 1953, initially distributing finished products. Severe import restrictions imposed by the Labour Government in 1957 led 3M to start a local manufacturing operation.
By 1962, the company had sufficient confidence in the future of its New Zealand operations to buy a 4.5 hectare site in Wairau Valley. Over the years, the business grew, new buildings were constructed and, by 1973, 180 people were employed at the site. More than 200 people now work for 3M but on a smaller site after the sale of some of its land several years ago for a Mitre 10 Mega store.
Its new Northbridge Properties-owned premises now being constructed will house 3M's marketing and administration staff in an attractively landscaped environment.
"We are committed to the New Zealand market and will continue to provide customers with the best product," says Brown.
The existing site has a high stud, 3500sq m distribution centre towards the rear of the property that was built in 1988. It has access from Poland Rd and Seymour says it could be leased or reused in any development of the site.
Even bigger, says Seymour, is the two-level, carpeted and air-conditioned 3700sq m of office space, which includes a warehouse, centrally located on the site that is ideal for immediate occupation.
A factory and older warehouse on a similar scale to the office and distribution centre, complete the major 3M facilities on the site.
The property is situated in a high-profile and easily accessible position, with frontage to Archers, Wairau and Poland roads. Seymour says it has excellent exposure not only to traffic passing its frontages but to motorists heading along the Northern Motorway, which is less than 200m away as the crow flies. "It can easily be seen by motorway traffic."
Seymour says any development of the site is not limited to the existing buildings - a 2565sq m grassed area on the junction of Wairau Rd and Archers Rd can be included in any new plans for the property.
Under the North Shore City Council's Operative District Plan, the site is zoned Business 10, designed to encourage a wide range of moderate to low intensity business activities.
McMahon says Wairau Valley developed up to the 1990s as the North Shore's top industrial location. "Since then, other uses, particularly office, showroom and retail, have dominated the surrounding area, taking advantage of the rapidly rising numbers of people living nearby and a zoning policy which encourages mixed use."
Wairau Road is one of the North Shore's busiest thoroughfares and is quickly changing in flavour from industrial to retail. "It will be further enhanced when the Pak'n Save supermarket, just along Wairau Road from the 3M site, eventually opens," says Hiskens.
"A well known retailer is believed to have bought a nearby site to develop a bulk format centre and there are already a large number of retailers operating within 200m of 3M's site, including Target Furniture, Super Cheap Autos, Kings Plant Barn and Jansens.
"Large format retail rents consistently exceed $200 per sq m in Wairau Valley, even for relatively large stores. In Takapuna, the North Shore's commercial centre, about 2.5km from 3M's site, retail vacancies are sitting at a low of 3.25 per cent, showing the continuing strength of retail demand on this side of the bridge."
Hiskens says he expects a lot of interest from North Shore developers, although development finance is harder to find than last year. "The site is likely to appeal to bigger developers, many of whom hold their investments and, typically, have substantial equity, so their lending requirements are modest. It could be suitable for a quality retail or office park."
Seymour says the site is also ideal for owner-occupiers and investors wanting to lease the existing offices, distribution centre and factory, plus develop the grassed area.
"Because there are so many options, it is difficult to predict a sale price, but we expect the property to be highly sought after and command a premium price," says McMahon, who has been involved in providing advice to 3M throughout the process.
"The Morgan Furniture site in Archers Road sold for a pretty good price last year and arguably the 3M site is better as it sits on a prime corner location with three street frontages. That gives it great flexibility, particularly in terms of building design and traffic management."
The site is being sold by 3M with vacant possession. Seymour said the company would prefer to sell with settlement deferred until August next year when it moved to its new head office. But 3M will consider selling and taking a short-term lease back over the premises and will also look at offers to buy a leasehold interest.
