Airport Oaks office-warehouse for sale

The property at 9 Richard Pearse Drive - indicated by a red border - has development land that offers the potential for another warehouse.

A large office-warehouse comprising a 5000sq m development site, plus drive-through truck access, is being offered for sale or lease in Airport Oaks, Mangere.

JLL agent Sam Smith and Scott Soroka of CBRE are marketing the 17,141sq m freehold site with a 5322sq m office and warehouse at 9 Richard Pearse Drive, through a deadline private treaty campaign closing September 22.

The property has 5000sq m of development land with the potential to build a further 4000sq m warehouse, says Smith.

"It's being offered with vacant possession, but there is currently a monthly income available with a short-term tenant using part of the warehouse space for storage on a month-by-month basis," he says.

"One of the biggest benefits has to be the large development site next to the warehouse. This provides opportunities with respect to building an additional warehouse or creating large yard areas in the tightly-held Airport Oaks precinct.

"A new owner could develop another property to co-exist with the existing building, or develop a new premise to lease out. Either option provides this property with significant upside."

Smith says the property is about 20 years old and has been well-maintained by the previous tenant Agility Logistics.

Close to the new Kirkbride Rd motorway interchange, the property has dual access from both Richard Pearse Drive and Ascot Rd, and is also only a five-minute drive from Auckland Airport. The area is busy, with many logistics and warehousing firms utilising the location for its accessibility to the airport and major transport links such as State Highway 20.

Soroka says a property of this sort is perfect for distribution, due to the large warehouse space and drive-through truck access.

He says properties offered with vacant possession have been in high demand within the industrial owner occupier market.

Augusta recently sold 100 Carbine Rd to an owner-occupier for $36.8m in one of the largest single industrial property transactions in recent years.

"Given the scarcity of industrial land outside of airport control in South Auckland, this property having room for expansion is a major bonus for the eventual purchaser. This is especially pertinent given the relatively high density of development surrounding the property," says Soroka.

Tom Barclay, JLL's associate director of research and consulting, says the agency's most recent industrial vacancy survey conducted in June 2017 showed a vacancy rate of only 3.1 per cent in the popular Airport Oaks precinct.

"This represents only 41,000sq m of available space against the total market of 1,320,000sq m, which JLL tracks in the area. It clearly demonstrates the popularity of the location with major manufacturing and logistics occupiers. Further to this point, net absorption for the Airport Oaks precinct over the past 12 months has exceeded 132,000sq m. The fact the industrial footprint has expanded by this much in such a short period of time without a corresponding rise in vacancy speaks to the strength and desirability of the location.

"The high levels of development occurring in the Airport Oaks precinct, driven largely by Auckland Airport, will underwrite the performance of this location long-term. The area is quickly evolving into the most desirable industrial precinct given the modern stock, access to key transport routes, as well as proximity to the workforce and the city."