The Gull Oil service station, Kingsland, is just a few hundred metres from Eden Park. Photo / Supplied
The premises sustaining one of Auckland's handful of city-fringe fuel stations has been placed on the market for sale.
Brokers say the Gull Oil service station, at 384-392 New North Rd, Kingsland, has been pumping gas from the address for almost 20 years.
Now the property, but not the fuel-retailing business, is now being marketed for sale by auction at 11am on Wednesday May 16 through Bayleys Auckland.
It features in Bayleys' latest Total Property portfolio magazine. Salespeople Stuart Bode and Mike Bradshaw say New North Road is a major arterial route linking Symonds St with the inner-western suburbs of Kingsland, Western Springs, Avondale and Blockhouse Bay.
"As one of the last – or first coming from the opposite direction - fuel stops outside of Auckland's Central Business District, the New North Road Gull site is consistently busy throughout the day as it picks up commuters travelling in both directions," Bode says.
"The Kingsland Gull site is the centrepiece of a retail automotive hub on New North Rd, which incorporates a VTNZ motor vehicle testing premises, an AA Lube automotive repair shop, and a Beaurepaires tyre outlet.
"In addition, the horse-shoe shaped complex also sustains a Bottle 'O branded liquor store and Subway convenience food operation.
"All of these peripheral and complementary businesses drive trade to Gull because the hub is a one-stop-shop destination," Bode says.
Gull Oil is now owned by parent company Caltex Australia, and has been a 'disruptor' amongst the established New Zealand fuel brands since it burst on to the retail scene in this country in 1998 by offering low-cost petrol and diesel. Caltex Australia claims to be Australia's largest transport fuel supplier – with 1900 sites.
The Gull 15-year lease commenced in August 1999 and is now operating under its first five-year right of renewal, with four further five-year rights of renewal through to 2039. The lease generates annual rent of $283,197 net. Two-yearly rental increases are linked to the Consumer Price Index with an underwritten minimum of 2 per cent and a maximum of 8 per cent.
Within the Gull building is a subleased Night and Day mini-supermarket which adds to the 'convenience' factor of a 'fuel and food' destination. There is parking for eight vehicles in front of the store.
The 288sq m building was constructed in 1999 specifically as a Gull service station – complete with substantial 636sq m canopy, multiple pumps, and underground petrol storage.
Bradshaw says the rectangular-shaped property has two entry/exit points off New North Rd and sits on a unit title share of 5385sq m of freehold land, zoned Mixed Use under Auckland Council's Unitary Plan.
"The service station canopy is a fairly substantial structure built of conventional steel framing on six columns and is clearly visible from the main road because of its height," Bradshaw says.
The retail block containing the Gull/Night and Day mini-supermarket unit is about 45m from the road frontage, while the service station forecourt with its fuel pumps under canopy faces directly onto New North Rd.
Bradshaw says the main retail premises within the Gull complex was built on reinforced concrete foundations, with pre-cast panel walls and steel framing supporting an iron roof laid on steel purlins.
He says the retail frontage features extensive window glazing within aluminium joinery — with the rear of the premises containing a small manager's office, chiller storeroom, and staff lunchroom.
The dual Gull and Night and Day mini-supermarket retail outlets at the property are accessed via automatic sliding double doors from the forecourt. Internally, the building's walls are lined with ceramic tiles and a fully-suspended ceiling, with a ceiling-mounted air conditioning unit and recessed fluorescent lighting contained in the ceiling cavity.
"This busy complex, with a prime street frontage in Kingsland and Gull/Caltex Australia as a tenant, will galvanise investor interest," Bradshaw says.