KEY POINTS:
The changing face of Auckland city is good news for building owners needing to lease larger than average areas of retail space within the central business district.
David Bernard, of Bayleys Real Estate, says leasing large retail floor plates has been challenging in the past but, with more than 16,000 apartments now in the city, larger format retailers have begun to realise they have a ready market literally on their doorsteps.
Bernard is marketing the former Regency Duty Free premises at 25 Victoria St, just 40m from one of Auckland's busiest intersections on the corner of Queen St and Victoria St.
The large retail shop has about 15m of store frontage to Victoria St with high foot traffic swelled by thousands of North Shore commuters disembarking from buses each day and walking to Queen St, Bernard says.
Regency Duty Free is now consolidating its operation at its store in Auckland International Airport where its licence expires in 2009 and also online. Its departure frees up 1137 sq m of ground floor retail space in Brookfield House and 773sq m of retail space above within a large fully leased office block.
The building is across the road from the proposed Dae Ju development of the 67-level Elliott Tower. The company has applied for consent to build 259 apartments and three levels of retail space.
Bernard, who specialises in retail leasing, has recently concluded four large CBD leases.
One is a Mitre 10 store which opened on the corner of Wellesley St and Nelson St, in 920 sq m of space.
They specifically moved in to focus on the inner-city residential market and, by all accounts, it should work for them well into the future as people look closer to home for their goods.
JB Hifi, a large format electronics, DVD and music retailer from Australia, took 1044 sq m of space at 280 Queen St to establish their flagship New Zealand store.
In the former Finance Plaza, adjacent to Brookfield House, Lollipops Educare has applied for resource consent to open its doors in 1617 sq m of space including the Plaza's open podium, making it the largest childcare centre in the city.
City Golf has also leased 667 sq m of space on the plaza level of the former Simpson Grierson building in Albert St which has proved ideal for a driving range with its large floor plate, open high stud areas and clear canopies for natural light, says Bernard.
These tenants looked long and hard for suitable premises because larger retail floor plates are not easy to come by in the CBD. They're also revitalising some under-utilised parts of the CBD which is good for the city.
Bernard said the Brookfield House retail store would suit a savvy specialty supermarket operator, for instance, to cater for the impulse-buy purchaser wanting a bottle of wine and a meal from a good delicatessen within it, while also stocking general foodstuffs that every householder buys.
It would also suit an electronics store or homeware retailer focusing on the inner-city residential market.
There is now a significant residential catchment within a short radius in the city, which is added to by the city's office workers out on the streets for their lunch breaks.
Bernard says Brookfield House's owner, publicly listed Kermadec Property Fund, will also consider multiple tenancy options for the space.
