The four-storey 4841sq m complex at 35 Graham St has a high profile above busy Fanshawe St. P
The four-storey 4841sq m complex at 35 Graham St has a high profile above busy Fanshawe St. P
NZX listed landlord Asset Plus is about to settle the sale of an empty low-rise Auckland office block to private developers and investors Mansons TCLM.
The company told the stock exchange that settlement of the ex-Auckland Council building at 35 Graham St was due on November 29.
If that dealgoes through then a special one-off dividend would be declared on December 2, with shareholders getting the money before Christmas on December 16.
A 5cps dividend is intended to be paid after bank debt has been repaid according to the announcement from CEO Mark Francis and Simon Woollams and Stephen Brown-Thomas of Asset Plus and Centuria.
No price was declared in today’s announcement and the buyer was unnamed but a spokesman confirmed the $68m price tag specified in a 2023 NZX declaration, whereas a $65m sale had been announced previously. The $3m price rise happened when the settlement date was extended.
How Asset Plus planned to revamp 35 Graham St, making it a much larger building.
Two years ago, Asset Plus announced it would sell what is now the vacant 35 Graham St above Fanshawe St to Mansons TCLM for $65 million.
Mansons is yet to announce plans for the site.
But it is most likely to demolish and redevelop, given what it has done on many other sites including BDO House at 2 Graham St which Mansons also developed and sold last decade and the Spark campus fronting Victoria St.
The private developers are expected to capitalise on the building’s location in the western precinct, surrounded by blue chip tenants including those at 136 Fanshawe St, a $329m building opened in 2022 by then-Finance Minister and Deputy Prime Minster Grant Robertson.
Tenants in that building also accessed off Hardinge St include lawyers MC, Lion, Fidelity Life and others.
Asset Plus had intended to work on the building itself, but instead of demolition, it had planned to add extra floors on top of what is a minimal use of the valuable site.
It once talked of creating a $350m asset.
136 Fanshawe St is the black block in the centre.
Auckland Council owned the building but leased it after Asset Plus bought it, with those big plans for the transformation.
It was the council’s service centre for some years and hundreds of staff worked there.
But Asset Plus struck a deal with the council to build a new northern council service centre at Munroe Lane, Albany. Workers vacated the Graham St building to go to other council properties.
The four-storey 4841sq m complex at 35 Graham St has a high profile above busy Fanshawe St.
The ground floor of the building was used as a temporary vaccination centre during the pandemic while the rest of the building was empty, with Asset Plus not getting any rent.
The premises have been empty now for around two years.
Resource consent was granted for the company to add three new levels to the existing office building, taking it from 12,900sq m to 25,800sq m.
The changes to create a statement building were designed by Woods Bagot.
The resource consent said the new building had been designed to cantilever over the category B listed BJ Ball building in a series of steps. That historic building has a distinctive mural on its wall which the council noted Asset Plus would retain.
Now-ditched Asset Plus plans for 35 Graham St for retail outlets to activate the building's edge.
The building straddles the end of Hardinge St and Graham St, opposite BDO House at 2 Graham St which Augusta syndicated in an offering to investors once it was completed in 2015 and leased to a range of tenants.
Francis said just last year there was strong demand for such space. The western flank of the CBD had developed in recent years and was now home to several “workhouse” businesses like Fonterra and Air New Zealand.
According to Francis at the time, the redevelopment was to bring cafes and eateries to the building’s lower areas and decks off offices above.
Pedestrianising Queen St might mean more businesses move out of the core CBD area and into areas like that western fringe, he predicted at that time, he said.
But all that was ditched, with the company deciding to quit the site. A mural on the building’s exterior must be kept if the building is redeveloped or demolished.
And now the sale settlement is imminent.
Anne Gibson has been the Herald’s property editor for 24 years, written books and covered property extensively here and overseas.
