The buildings and property for sale at 109 Puhoi Rd, Puhoi, north of Auckland.
The buildings and property for sale at 109 Puhoi Rd, Puhoi, north of Auckland.
The Puhoi General Store and associated buildings are for sale within the historic Puhoi village 45kms north of Auckland's CBD.
"The store is next door to the famous Puhoi Pub and opposite the Puhoi River," says David Mayhew of JLL who is marketing the freehold property with colleague Marg Mills by negotiation.
The 1037sq m of building floor area for sale encompasses the Puhoi General Store, which is also being sold as a going concern business; a 35sqm building leased to the Trove craft shop next door; office space leased to a real estate company; and a newly completed four-bedroom house, all on a 1343sq m freehold site.
Mayhew says the house has internal access to the shop and its own private entrance at the back. School buses stop at the front door and provide transport to Orewa, Warkworth, Ahuroa and the North Shore.
"The General Store is the hub of the community, selling a wide range of stocks ranging from firewood to ice, fish bait; coffee, pies and swapping full LPG bottles for empties. It is known for its takeaways with the oysters and chips being a store specialty while an off-licence allows for the sale of beer and wine.
"There is also an area with balcony space where a new operator could set up a more sophisticated cafe business if desired. The store is also a NZ Post agency with post boxes which is visited by residents calling in daily to collect mail and parcels from the store.
"The business is for sale as a going concern, and financials are available on request," Mayhew says.
David Mayhew of JLL
Mills says there is an access point to the 3000km Te Araroa trail in Puhoi and the Puhoi River is popular waterway for kayakers and boaties.
"Tourists and day-trippers from Auckland visit Puhoi - especially on the weekends - to dine and imbibe at the famous Puhoi pub; or enjoy the variety of outdoor activities the area has offer. "Monthly farmers' markets and the Puhoi Valley cheese factory are other visitor drawcards along with Puhoi's church and town hall which are popular venues for weddings. Mills says The Bohemian Museum and Bohemian Dance Group help keep the town's history alive which dates back to 1863 when a group of 82 Bohemian immigrants came to New Zealand from what is now the Czech Republic and founded the tiny town of Puhoi amidst a steep valley of dense bush.
"The journey took more than four months and the land was not the flat, arable farming land they had imagined. Still, their letters enticed a second small group of 31 to follow them out to New Zealand a couple of years later."
Mills says the community will benefit from the construction of the new Puhoi to Wellsford motorway which could begin late this year. "The project is expected to last six years and there will be an off-ramp at Puhoi, bringing even more visitors to the village."
The existing motorway network already brings substantial traffic flows to Puhoi's doorstep with the New Zealand Transport Agency recording an average daily traffic count of 21,403 vehicles on State Highway One south of the Puhoi exit and a daily count of 20,465 just north of the Puhoi exit.
"This compares with 17,443 vehicles south and 18,018 north in 2011 - illustrating the growth in traffic on this section of the motorway between 2011 and 2015," Mills says.
Mayhew says the sale of the Puhoi store could represent a life-changing opportunity for a purchase wanting move their family out of the city and enjoy a country lifestyle,"
"Alternatively a buyer may simply wish to treat it as an investment and engage a new operator," he says.
Mills says the projected growth of Auckland's population and the Rodney area indicate that there will plenty of opportunity to grow the Puhoi business. "Orewa, Warkworth and Wellsford are all considered significant growth areas, and these are all within 30 minutes' drive of Puhoi," she says.
