Chinese lantern a top tender option

The distinctive Choice Plaza building has a multicultural line-up of tenants. Photo / Supplied

One of the Auckland CBD's most distinctive buildings, the pagoda-style Choice Plaza on the corner of Wellesley and Lorne Sts, is on the market.

The bright-red building with jade tiled roofing was designed in the shape of a Chinese lantern for a local Asian developer in the late 1980s by well-known Auckland architect Ron Sang.

Initially, the 2145sq m building provided office accommodation, but these days it has three retail levels and nine levels of tourist accommodation.

The property is now up for tender as part of Bayleys' latest Total Property portfolio and is being marketed by Robert Platt and James Chan of Bayleys Auckland, with tenders closing on Wednesday, September 21, if the property is not sold earlier.

Chan says the building has had a multicultural line-up of owners over the years, including Hong Kong, Korean and Indian investors, before its current New Zealand ownership.

The 12-level building is fully leased, with Choice Plaza Backpackers occupying the top floors and the basement.

There are three levels of retail occupied by mostly food-related tenancies. The property's eight tenancies are producing net annual rental income of $688,338 and have two-yearly rent reviews.

Platt says the building at 10 Wellesley St is in a high-profile 339sq m corner site, a short distance from Queen St and across the road from Auckland City's main library.

"It sits in the education zone, which provides a high pedestrian flow past the building, particularly of students walking between Auckland University and AUT and Queen St.

"The property has a number of well-established tenants who have been in the building for some time and the backpacker business reports that it is benefiting from good referral business from guests who have enjoyed their stay there."

The building has six tenants on the street-level ground floor, ranging in size from a 6sq m pancake outlet to the 71sq m Dory Sushi restaurant and Sake Japanese bar.

The two levels above this are occupied by the Nol Bu Ne Korean Restaurant, which has taken a six-year lease renewal from May 2011 over its 417sq m of space.

Choice Plaza Backpackers has its 24-hour reception, recreation and internet cafe facilities in the 245sq m basement area, with its accommodation on the top eight levels of the building. It has five to seven rooms per floor, providing single, double, twin and dormitory accommodation, with showers and toilets on each level. A fully equipped kitchen and laundry are on Level 3.

Choice Plaza Backpackers describes itself as providing affordable, quality hostel accommodation, with large windows in each room providing excellent views of the central city.

It has a lease over the space it occupies until April 2015, with two rights of renewal of six years each.

APN Outdoor Signs also rents space on the west-facing wall of the building, which Platt says is a reflection of the site's high-profile position.

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