Gas station's strategic site should rev up interest

The Mobil service station forecourt at 548-550 West Coast Rd.

A strategic Glen Eden corner site that has been in the same ownership for over 45 years has "reluctantly" been put on the market as a land, buildings and going concern business package due to the owners deciding on retirement.

"The sale presents investors, owner occupiers and developers with a range of options given the mix of income streams and property on offer," says David Palmer of Barfoot & Thompson Commercial who, with colleague John Stringer, is marketing 548-550 West Coast Rd for sale by deadline private treaty closing at 4 pm on Thursday July 23 unless it sells earlier by negotiation.

The 3341 sq m freehold corner site is occupied by an established Mobil service station and workshop business which are both included in the sale along with a separate four bedroom villa and surplus land.

Palmer says the service station and workshop trade under the name Kenlock Motors Limited, a company which was incorporated in 1970 when the owners initially commenced operating from the property.

The site is irregular shaped with street frontages to West Coast Rd and Shaw Rd. The service station and attached workshop are in one building on the front of the site with the residential dwelling adjacent. The surplus land suitable for development purposes - subject to council approval - is at the rear of the site.

"The building has recently been assessed as having an Initial Evaluation Procedure [IEP] earthquake rating of 70 per cent," Palmer says.

The forecourt, with a new canopy replaced last month, has two double sided stations with 10 pumps providing premium, regular and diesel fuel along with a separate area for the provision of diesel for trucks. The premium, regular and diesel tanks each hold 30,000 litre of fuel.

The Mobil service station forecourt at 548-550 West Coast Rd.

Palmer says the tanks were constructed of single bunded fibreglass and were installed in 1998. They were tested and approved again in December 2008 by Fuelquip.
A supply agreement is in place between Kenlock Motors and Mobil Oil New Zealand with an expiry of December 31, 2018.

"The agreement includes factors like stating the specific hours when the dealer can operate the business and that the dealer must pay Mobil's reseller prices current at the time - reduced by the amount of discount to which the dealer is entitled," Palmer says.

"The Mobil supply agreement is available to prospective purchasers on request," he says.
Stringer says the service station shop is at the front of the workshop which is a typical industrial styled building comprising three bays - each with double sided roller door access and a stud height of about five metre.

"The building has an area of around 400 square metres including the shop area," Stringer says.

The four bedroom weatherboard residential villa, accessed off Shaw Rd, is adjacent to the service station and on the same title. The villa is leased out on a monthly tenancy arrangement and earns $330 per week while the service station and workshop with a variety of specified chattels are being sold with vacant possession.

Stringer says the property's location on the southern side of West Coast Rd at the intersection with Shaw Rd marks the boundary of Glen Eden and Oratia. "West Coast Rd is a major link road between Great North Rd and the western suburbs of Glen Eden and Oratia. The service station is the last petrol station before Oratia and the West Coast beaches of Piha, Bethells Beach and Karekare for traffic travelling west.

"Most of Glen Eden's commercial premises are on West Coast Rd including Glen Eden village which is a two minute drive east of this property," Stringer says.

The property is zoned Human Living under the Auckland Council Operative Waitakere District Plan 2003 which covers most of the western suburbs.

Under the Proposed Auckland Unitary Plan it is designated Living Environment and Human Environment with the site zoned for a single house site at one unit per 600 sq m and the service station and house having existing use rights.