Former central Tauranga bank has guaranteed income

The Spring St site is seen as ideal for a university satellite building.

The former ANZ central city branch building in Tauranga is up for sale.

The bank vacated 53 Spring St this year when it moved its retail operations across the road to the former National Bank premises on the corner of Grey St and Spring St.

Brendon Bradley of Bayleys Tauranga, who is marketing the property for sale through a tender process closing on October 1, says it will provide guaranteed income through until July 2016, with the bank still paying annual rent of $254,000 plus GST on the Spring St location.

The two-storey building sits on 877sq m of commercially zoned land and comes with 31 car parks beneath and behind the building.

The 393sq m ground floor includes an open-plan reception area with six adjoining partitioned offices.

Bradley says the property would suit a tertiary education, retail, hospitality or professional services tenancy. A design feature inside is a solid steel walk-in safe formerly used by the bank for cash and valuable storage.

"The building has a substantial security-controlled carpark below with an internal staircase to the two levels above. There is a concrete ramp at the front door for wheelchair-bound clients, and metered parking immediately outside on Spring St, along with a public carparking lot with 290 spaces just 100m away."

The 381sq m upper level at present has a reception area, two meeting rooms and a large open-plan office area, as well as a staff lunchroom and toilet amenities.

"With the guaranteed holding income, the intervening 22-month period will allow any new owner an ample timeframe to acquire the necessary development consents for refurbishment into a new format if required and to source new tenants," Bradley says.

The concrete-framed freehold building, built in 1989, is rated A grade under the National Building Standards and has a steel-framed roof.

Bradley says the building's key "draw cards" for businesses motivated by location are its position close to the heart of the city and high visibility on a corner location on one of the city's busiest routes.

"From that perspective and its seismic rating, the property would be suitable for occupancy by a government agency, or a consultancy based business like an accountancy firm, design and engineering practice, or the likes of a media or creative agency," says Bradley.

"The uniform shape of the building and its relatively modular interior fit-out mean the offices as they are currently can be reconfigured relatively easily to bigger dimensions."

Bradley believes it could be developed as a "boutique" ancillary location to the Waikato University/Bay of Plenty Polytechnic campus starting in central Tauranga next year, which expects to host 6500 students between 2015 and 2035.

"As the campus beds in and expands the university could begin looking for smaller centres operating as satellite learning sites close to the main CBD campus headquarters.

"The university chose a central city location to establish its campus for three main reasons - availability of premises, accessibility to public transport bus routes, and being near to social infrastructure like retail and hospitality outlets."

Bradley says the site offers all those qualities, as well as the bonus of having its own on-site parking underneath. He says it would be fairly straightforward to combine two or three offices into a classroom, or keep the offices as they are for smaller tutorial-style rooms.

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