Capital site has apartment building consent

This Wellington car park near Courtenay Place has resource consent for a new 15-level apartment block

An inner-city Wellington car park near Courtenay Place is for sale with resource consent for the construction of a new 15-level apartment block.

The 930sq m rectangular site at 10 Alpha St, Te Aro, operates as a tar-sealed Wilson car park with space for 32 vehicles and has additional pedestrian access off Courtenay Place.

However, resource consent in place allows for the construction of a 43m high apartment block with the building configured as having:

• 41 one-bedroom apartments,
• 21 two-bedroom apartments,
• five three-bedroom apartments,
• five further three-bedroom apartments with studies, and
• 44 car parks.

The site is being marketed by Grant Young and Mark Walker of Bayleys Wellington through a tender process closing on September 14.

Young says the undeveloped inner-city site is bordered by a combination of low to medium-rise commercial buildings - with ground floor retail tenancies, and a mix of offices and apartments above.

"Plans have been drawn up to maximise returns from the Alpha Street site - hence the configuration of purely residential dwellings and associated car parks rather than diluting the mix with any retail or office space.

"This would allow a higher quality apartment block to be developed with an atrium-style entrance lobby. The Wellington City Council consented plans are part of the sale offering, but of course any potential purchaser or developer would be free to resubmit their own set of blueprints.

"Any development is protected to the north by a height restriction over the adjoining property."

Wilson Parking has a three year lease on the Alphas Street site - generating annual rent of $75,000 plus GST. However, there is a 45 day demolition clause in the lease contract that would allow a buyer to begin building work almost immediately.

The freehold land has a 2015 council rating valuation of $2,250,000 - made up entirely of land value with no building improvements on the site.

Walker says that as corporate tenants relocated out of older mixed use office and retail blocks in the Te Aro precinct, a growing number of commercial real estate owners are reconfiguring their properties into apartments before strata-titling the units and selling them off individually.

"Demand for inner-city residential units is higher than for the same space in a commercial use model. So owners of such real estate can now derive better returns by modernising their older space in a different use rather than refurbishing the office fit-out with the hope of attracting in a new corporate tenant," Walker says.

"Seeing this trend evolving for several years now, the owners of the land at 10 Alpha Street set about acquiring the necessary planning consents for a purely residential development. However, with a change in their property investment focus outside of Wellington, they are now looking to sell the asset with all the initial hard work done to take this site to a new future."