Hunters Plaza shopping centre is for sale at 217 Great South Rd, Papatoetoe.
Hunters Plaza shopping centre is for sale at 217 Great South Rd, Papatoetoe.
The high profile Hunters Plaza shopping centre in Papatoetoe that is currently undergoing a significant refurbishment is being offered for sale by Colliers International.
Anchored by major Australasian retail tenants Countdown and Kmart on new long-term leases, the property at 217 Great South Rd, will generate more than $4.3 million in total net annual rental income.
John Goddard, with colleagues Andrew Reed and John Green from the NZ Capital Markets team, is marketing the property for sale by way of international private treaty closing on April 9.
Goddard says Hunters Plaza is a single level, fully enclosed sub-regional shopping centre of 16,367 sq m on a 28,817 sq m high visibility corner site with a basement covered car park for 521 cars.
The centre is generally constructed of reinforced concrete columns and beams extending to the basement car parking area in a grid layout. It has concrete floors with steel framing supporting a variety of external claddings including pre-cast concrete slabs and masonry block walls. The roof cladding is predominantly pre-finished mild steel.
"The prominent site fronts Great South Road and is around 19 kilometres south of Auckland's CBD," Goddard says. "Its location provides excellent access to the city's motorway network, as well as to Auckland Airport."
The two major tenants are on new long term leases and the centre accommodates three mini major retail tenants including No.1 Shoes and Noel Leeming, along with 57 specialty stores.
Aerial view of Hunters Plaza shopping centre at 217 Great South Rd with complex defined by a red border.
Goddard says the centre's South Auckland location has one of the fastest growing population projections in New Zealand, and a redeveloped Hunters Plaza is exceptionally well placed to take advantage of that.
"Very few sub-regional shopping centres are ever offered for sale in Auckland, so to have this one presented in such a highly targeted growth area like Auckland makes it a formidable investment opportunity.
"Demographics drive retail investment characteristics so we are very confident that the sale of Hunters Plaza will create significant interest from the investment community." Goddard says that in addition to the property's exceptional fundamentals as a retail investment opportunity, it also presents the potential to create a residential development in excess of 200 apartments subject to council approval.
"The significant residential redevelopment options relate to a portion of the large landholding that Hunters Plaza's sited on under the Proposed Auckland Unitary Plan.
"An indicative scheme has been designed to accommodate four, five-level blocks of one and two-bedroom apartments around a first floor landscaped podium that would provide private amenity and entertainment space for residents.
"This could add a valuable option to what is already a strong, standalone retail investment opportunity," Goddard says.
He says Kmart refurbished its Hunters Plaza store last year, and still has about eight years to run on its lease. The company's head office is also located at Hunters Plaza.
Countdown's new lease is for 10 years, and the current refurbishments - due for completion in October this year - involve fitting out their existing store to latest company specifications. A second set of travellators is also being installed to improve access from Countdown to the basement car parks.
The specialty stores in front of the Countdown store are also being reconfigured to provide superior exposure and accessibility, and the entire common area of the mall will be retiled.
Reed says the duration on the leases for the multiple retail tenants is above average for similar shopping centres, and this will assist fundability.
"This retail centre already reports an excellent security of cash flow given its Weighted Average Lease Term (WALT) of just over six years."
Along with the basement car park facility, a further 171 open car park spaces run along the rear of the property adjacent to Sutton Crescent.
The centre is accessed via various automatic entry doors into the main concourse area off both Great South Road and Sutton Crescent. Additional access comes from the basement car park travellators and pedestrian ramp.
Green says the surrounding area features many of New Zealand's leading businesses and schools along with local strip retailers, trading banks and various food outlets.
