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Three reasons prompted the owner of Ponsonby’s upmarket 45-unit office, restaurant, retail and cinema hub to put the property on the market.
Andy Davies said his business was selling Ponsonby Central but a combination of factors made him decide to quit the $70 million-plus property.
“It’s more than one thing,”explained Davies who established the hub 11 years ago.
He was featured in the Herald last decade, telling how he dropped out of high school and started his career working in a menswear shop. But by 2014 he was reported to own more than 50 titles in Auckland and a holiday home in Waihi with a combined value of $74.6 million.
“The first reason is I have two new projects to do. Second, around a third of the site is only one-storey high but could be built up to four or five levels. Third, my passion is to create new spaces, not maintain what we’ve finished,” he said.
Restaurants include Burger Burger, Gaja, Blue Breeze Inn, Bird on a Wire and Bedford Soda & Liquor and offer cuisines from a dozen countries, including Italy, Thailand, Argentina, France and Venezuela. The business says it’s an “outdoor strip lined with chic, global cafes and bars, gourmet food vendors and eclectic boutiques”.
The hub was launched in 2012 as “a global dining experience, a place where you feel invited to come, stay and bring your friends to experience Auckland at an international level”.
More than 25 hospitality outlets trade from there, including the Silky Otter cinema which opened late last year.
All up, rent of $5.1 million is paid annually, according to Colliers.
Property developer Andy Davies with his dogs at Ponsonby Central. Photo / Getty Images
Ponsonby Central’s site is 4390sq m on three street frontages. Building floor areas are 6727sq m, the agents said.
A penthouse is included in the sale. Davies said it was built for him and his partner who initially thought they would spend time there. But he runs an animal rescue centre in the country and realised lately he did not use the penthouse that much.
So that penthouse has been rented out and is also for sale, he said.
The hub also has 83 underground car parks “and I give you the first 20 minutes for free. Not many people do that now, do they?” Davies said.
Auckland Council valued 4 Brown St for rating at $70m two years ago.
Davies said that was the main address for rating purposes. He didn’t want to comment on the $70m valuation although indicated it was much lower than the commercial valuation of the properties.
The council values the 4390sq m site at that address at $32m and buildings with a floor area of 5461sq m at $38m. Rates are $375,000/year.
But Ponsonby Central’s website gives its address as 136 Ponsonby Rd. No council valuation records are available for that address.
Davies has offices on level one of 6 Brown St.
The hub is on the corner of Richmond Rd and Ponsonby Rd. Its main entrance is on Ponsonby Rd, but customers and diners also get in off a laneway between Richmond Rd and Brown St.
Davies said the two new projects he planned were also both in Ponsonby but lease provisions meant he could not begin work for some time. the projects were retail and commercial developments.
Colliers wants offers for Ponsonby Central by June 8.
Not all at Ponsonby Central has done well. In April, the Herald reported how one restaurant was shutting, leaving creditors including Davis owed around $78,000.
Patel & Co’s Pritesh Patel is the liquidator of AJDA, trading as Miss Istanbul Corner.
The Turkish restaurant had been trading from the food and retail premises and that dine-in and takeaway restaurant got more than $69,000 from the Government in Covid wage subsidies but even that couldn’t keep it afloat more latterly.
But Patel said rising food costs, staff shortages, limited car parking, rising labour costs, more competition and Cyclone Gabrielle were some of the reasons for its failure.
Davies said in April that the restaurant had traded from its site for about five years and owed only a few thousand dollars in back rent. Another restaurant business wanted to lease that space and he was confident about renting it
“This is only the second liquidation in Ponsonby Central since it was opened in 2012. It’s trading really well,” Davies said at that time.
The precinct was “packed” lately and had been short-listed for a national architecture award as well, he said.
