Big Mangere market garden block fertile for developers

Aerial view of the 14 hectare Mangere land block for sale at 72 Tidal Rd currently used for market gardening.

A large Mangere rural zoned 14 hectare land block currently used for market gardening and retained in the same family since 1958 is being offered for sale with the prospect of rezoning for business purposes.

"Being close to Auckland airport and near vastly improved motorway links, this land at 72 Tidal Road is an attractive proposition for developers," says Terry Quinn, commercial and industrial broker, with Commercial Realty Ltd who is selling it by tenders closing at 4pm on Friday June 26.

"When purchased from the Slater family the land was a dairy farm of 14.8305 hectares of gently sloping land," Quinn says. "The Tam family have worked the land as market gardeners for 57 years and David Tam now feels the time is right for a well earned retirement.

"Market garden work is physically exacting especially on the back, having to bend frequently and the vegetable production business in Auckland has seen the emergence of big players with large mechanised capital intensive production - squeezing the smaller production operations in terms of economic viability. Therefore the last crop to be harvested on this property will be in December this year."

Quinn says there is an extreme shortage of Business zoned land in the vicinity and the freehold land directly abuts existing industrial development along Tidal Rd. It also has a boundary to Waokauri Place which houses industrial warehouses.

"The initial recommendation from Council officers is for a Business Zoning as against Residential with concerns raised as to a relative closeness to the airport flight path which is a negative factor for Residential development. The re-zoning is part of the Puhinui Structure Plan under the Proposed Auckland Unitary Plan," Quinn says.

The property is effectively self contained and has a primary street frontage to the south western side of Tidal Road of 337.58 metres while part of the property borders Pukaki Creek.

It encompasses a derelict house and packing shed on the site, which are included in the purchase price. There is also a non permitted water bore on the property which was installed in the 1950s when consents were not required.

Power, gas, telecommunications, town water and sewer reticulation services are all available to the property, but any subdivision of the land would require reticulation of essential services throughout the site.

The property has a capital valuation of $3.5 million made up of $3.4 million of land value and $100,000 of improvements.

"The CV valuations undoubtedly reflect the existing zoning of the property rather than its potential as industrial or business land once re-zoned," Quinn says.