Vacating Freemasons free up Brooklyn site

The Ohiro Rd, Brooklyn, property for sale of over 3ha is identified by a red border. Photo / Supplied

In Wellington a large parcel of freehold suburban Residential-zoned land in Ohiro Rd, Brooklyn, is being marketed for sale as "the closest land development opportunity closest to the capital's CBD".

The 3.3606ha site is located five minutes from Brooklyn Village, half-way down Ohiro Rd towards Wellington's south coast, and has been owned by the South Wellington Masonic Hall Company Limited since the 1970s.

However, Freemasons that meet in Brooklyn are looking to relocate to a new development on the Hutt Rd, so the significant Ohiro Rd block has been put up for sale with vacant possession.

Fraser Press and Ethan Hourigan of Bayleys Wellington are marketing the property by tender, closing at 4pm on Wednesday October 24.

"The modernised commercial property on the Hutt Rd will provide a better location for lodge members and a higher standard of amenities" says Press.

The Brooklyn property, accessed off a wide sealed driveway from Ohiro Rd, has one 740sq m building known as the Brooklyn Freemason's Centre that is set up as a lodge with full catering facilities, amenities and a number of large meeting or function rooms.

This facility has been used regularly by a number of Freemason lodges for around 40 years, including the Saint Andrews Lodge, Hinemoa-Kairangi Lodge and the Empire Fergusson Lodge.

"The Ohiro Road site has a roughly 6000sq m platform of evenly-contoured land with park-like surroundings, along with a large gully which, with some lateral thinking, could add to the usable area," Press says.

"The size, the location and the contour would suggest that a comprehensive townhouse development could be the best and highest use for the land.

"However, we cannot eliminate the appeal that the existing property configuration could have for the likes of community or church groups looking for private, well-located property."

For rating purposes, the site has a land value of $1.1m and the improvements are set down as $500,000, making a capital value (C.V) of $1,650,000 as of September 2015.

"Given recent rumblings that the Wellington region could potentially run out of residential development land as the population escalates, the potential of this largely under-utilised site will resonate with proactive developers looking to secure city-fringe land," says Press.

Statistics New Zealand has documented that the Wellington region's population, including the Hutt Valley and Porirua, will increase from 413,400 to 459,200 over the next 25 years.