The Penrose propery has been modernised and shows great flexibility.
A high-profile corner site retail showroom, office, and light manufacturing complex in South Auckland, with parking for 15 vehicles, has been placed on the market for sale or lease.
Built in the 1980s, the two storey property at 495 Great South Rd in Penrose is on one of the busiest arterial routes in New Zealand, linking Newmarket with the southern industrial centres of Onehunga, Penrose and Manukau.
It is only a few hundred metres from State Highway 1, via the Ellerslie/Penrose interchange.
The freehold property occupies 1070sq m of land and features a 406sq m showroom on the ground floor, with 188sq m of office space above, and 60sq m of basement storage and light industry capacity underneath.
"It has a built-in safe on the ground floor as a reminder of its previous life as a bank," says Mike Adams of Bayleys Auckland, who, with colleague James Hill is marketing the property for sale by tender process closing on July 17.
The property features in the latest edition of Bayleys' Total Property portfolio and is being sold with a vacant possession with the vendor's preferred settlement date being November 1.
Adams says the premises would suit either an owner-operator looking for the triple requirement of a showroom, light industrial facility and office space. It could also attract an investor looking for the reassurance of being located in a low vacancy industrial precinct.
"Banks are known for undertaking considerable geographic due diligence and location research before opening suburban branches and that process was completed at 495 Great South Rd in the 1980s before the rationalisation of banking groups' networks in the 2000s," Adams says.
"It's easy to understand why the corner location on Great South Rd was identified by the bank's research and then supported with ample easy access parking off Greenpark Rd.
"The building's construction methods are also indicative of the high standards sought by banks as tenants."
Adams says the dual-use nature of the property easily lends itself to becoming a head office for a company with brands or products requiring a public facing showroom facility supported by the commercial requirements of housing administrative staff on site.
This flexibility is further enhanced with the building's owner considering both outright sale or leasing proposals.
"The basement level also provides the benefit of a small production plant away from public sight and hearing, but within the same building should public or trade customers require product repairs or specialised orders direct from the manufacturer," he says.
Potential tenants of the building could include the likes of kitchen or bathroomware outlets; high-end home electronics dealers; furniture manufacturers and retailers; interior design and decor shops; or suppliers of industrial products or services. Staff toilets including a shower - are located at the rear of the building, with air conditioning throughout all levels of the premises.
The building is zoned Business 4 and is tenanted by architectural industry lighting consultancy and lighting technology retailer Targetti New Zealand Ltd.
It has a 105 per cent National Building Standards (NBS) rating equating to an A-plus Initial Evaluation Procedure (IEP) ranking.
"Being on the fringe of New Zealand's primary industrial zones stretching across the Auckland Isthmus from the Manukau Harbour, through Mt Wellington and over to East Tamaki; and with the substantial floor space for housing administrative personnel, the property could be an excellent location for operations like health and safety equipment suppliers to the industrial sector, workplace security equipment wholesalers, or a light machinery agency which needs space to showcase its wares," Adams says.
"Though the showroom footprint is substantial in its current format, there is the potential to decrease its size to allow for increasing the adjacent office space or for expanding the basement manufacturing plant."
Hill says the ground floor showroom space has a high profile vista onto Great South Rd, with roller door entry from Greenpark Rd for delivery and collection of product.
Additional parking at the rear of the building can be used for outdoor storage and container space, or for extra public and staff car parking.
Inside, the upstairs office space has been designed in an open plan format, and features an exposed steel beam ceiling with deliberately visible ducting and electrical wiring networks. Staff amenities include a full kitchen and bathrooms, Hill says.
The lower and upper levels are connected by a central internal staircase.
"The office space is very modern and clinical - almost reflecting what you would expect to find in a city-fringe advertising agency or marketing consultancy. It has very straight and functional lines - reflective of the exterior concrete tilt-slab construction style," he says.
"The unobstructed ceiling structure creates a very open vertical workspace flow in a warehouse format.
" It's certainly not what you'd expect to see in many of the buildings designed from that era, and it has been modernised to ensure it has one of the 'coolest' office spaces in the Southern Corridor."