Highways crossroads site ensures success of retail hub

The newest and biggest retail hub in the Manawatu completed at the end of last year has been placed on the market for sale fully tenanted.

The Rangitikei Junction hub, featured in Bayleys' latest Total Property portfolio magazine, is the biggest commercial property in the town of Bulls with anchor tenants comprising a Foodstuffs' Four Square supermarket and a BP service station and truck stop.

"These tenancies have initial 15 year leases with final lease expirations in 2041 and 2043 respectively," says Karl Cameron of Bayleys Palmerston North who is marketing Rangitikei Junction for sale at auction on December 2

"Wallace Development's highly successful highway hub retail concept delivered an all-in-one retail location of complementary businesses," Cameron says.

In total, the Rangitikei Junction hub has 11 tenancies on the 1.65 hectare freehold property which includes 142 customer car parks. The tenancies range in size from 47 sq m through to 2489 sq m and produce combined net revenue of $544,901 plus GST per annum.

Rangitikei District Council has a 15 year lease on one of the units within Rangitikei Junction, while the majority of remaining tenants are convenience and fast food operations. The Rangitikei Junction zone has been built by privately-owned property development company Wallace Development Company Limited.

The newest and biggest retail hub in the Manawatu completed at the end of last year has been placed on the market for sale fully tenanted.Bulls sits on a strategic crossroads of State Highway One which runs through the central North Island, and State Highway Three which links nearby Palmerston North with Wanganui and Taranaki. New Zealand Transport Agency figures show an average of 12,768 vehicles pass by the location on a daily basis.

"The Rangitikei Junction development encapsulates many of the convenience retailing and automotive supply trends which have been evident globally over the past decade," Cameron says. "Core to the hub offering is the supermarket and petrol station operations which initially attract customers to the location.

"Time and motion studies have shown a high cross-over rate of customers between the two outlets with customers shopping and then filling up with fuel; or filling up with fuel and then undertaking their grocery shopping - either way without having to make a separate journey.

"Foodstuffs has been at the forefront of this dual-convenience trend in New Zealand with a many of its newer Pak'nSave locations now including adjoining petrol stations."

Cameron says a 'magnet' business philosophy was also behind the strategy for pulling together five complementary rather than competing food outlets into the Rangitikei Junction location. Each of the tenancies has its own entrance facing out toward the centre car parking area, and its own staff amenities.

He says the 'crossroads' location of Bulls ensures Rangitikei Junction is patronised not only by Bulls locals, but also by the thousands of passing vehicle drivers and passengers travelling the two state highways located adjacent to the entrance of the centre.

"Traffic counts were one of the key assessment criteria Wallace Developments based its locations on," he says.. In conjunction with both BP and Z Energy, the company had built identical hubs in the Auckland suburbs of Otahuhu, Henderson, Northcote and Albany, as well as regionally in Palmerston North, Wanganui, Taupo and the Kapiti Coast.

"That high traffic count, combined with the quality of the build, and the complementary nature of the adjoining tenancies, makes Rangitikei Junction a very attractive investment opportunity for sustaining long-term tenants," Cameron says.