K' Rd character offers a clean palate

The two-level white painted character building (at left) is for sale at 74-76 Karangahape Rd. Photo / Supplied

A two-level character property in Auckland's Karangahape Rd is being marketed as sitting in a value range that's accessible to both add-value buyers and owner-occupiers.

"With just one smaller tenant having a shorter term lease obligation, a buyer will have a very clean palate to work with," says Murray Tomlinson of Barfoot & Thompson Commercial who, with colleague Reese Barragar, is marketing 74-76 Karangahape Rd for sale by tenders closing at 2pm on Thursday June 20 – unless it is sold earlier.

"This freehold property is going to suit any buyer who has a passion for character premises and buildings; who has vision for planning and design; and who relishes the planning and mechanics of the renovation process," Tomlinson says.

The 533sq m building occupies 354sq m of land and has a zoning of Business – City Centre with the lettable area encompassing a 317sq m ground floor and 216sq m first floor.

The building earns total rent of $41,462 per annum with one tenant, K' Rd Dairy Ltd occupying a retail area of 77sq m and paying annual rent of $32,750 on a four year lease commencing August 1, 2017 and expiring July 3, 2021. Wall signage generates another $8712 per annum but this is effectively leased on a weekly basis.

A ground floor retail area of 240sq m is vacant as is a first floor workroom of 216sq m.

Tomlinson says redeveloping and fully leasing the street level retail area and creating space for five offices on the first level would lift the annual rent generated to an estimated $173,432 per annum.

He says the essentially flat land site is almost triangular in shape and has a street frontage of about 16m to Karangahape Rd.

"The original structure looks to predate 1920 but plans indicate significant additions and alterations in both 1920 and 1924. In 2015 a portion of the 1924 upper floor addition was demolished with accompanying reinstatement works.

"A 2018 registered valuation states that a total ground floor area of 317sq m splits into the larger tenancy of 240sq m and into the smaller 77sq m tenancy occupied by the dairy," he says.

Both tenancies have access to a small lightwell about the centre west side of the structure. The upper floor totalling an estimated net area of 216sq m comprises five rooms measuring 28sq m, 30sq m, 39 sq m, 44 sq m and 75 sq m.

"The gross floor area is possibly larger than the stated 216sq m," says Tomlinson.

Barragar says the Karangahape Road precinct is in the midst of regeneration driven by an increase of residences, improved retail outlets and anticipated increased pedestrian counts from a City Rail Link station that will be constructed on Mercury Lane and East St and which is predicted to become one of the busiest CRL stations.

Barragar says K' Rd's intersection with main arterial Symonds St is only 130m further east of the property.

"At this location there is an on-ramp to the State Highway 1 Southern Motorway. A short distance to the West is Ponsonby Rd and the commencement of busy Great North Rd."

Barragar says the eastern end of Karangahape Rd, along with the property for sale, is very well located in terms of being close to Auckland Hospital and the University of Auckland's Medical Schools – both accessed via Grafton Bridge.

"The University of Auckland's main campus is about 800m north on Symonds Street which has seen the huge growth in student accommodation in the last two decades," he says.