CBD office tower with well-known tenants

A landmark commercial and retail office block in the heart of central Auckland – housing New Zealand’s biggest private tertiary education provider – has been placed on the market.

The 5729sq m building on the busy Queen St and Wakefield St intersection, comprises a 10-storey block with an international-branded food service operation at street level, eight levels of commercial office space occupied by the NZ School of Tourism, with an investment company on the top floor.

Sitting on 665sq m of freehold land zoned Business–City Centre–Queen Street Valley Precinct under the Auckland Unitary Plan, operative in part, the building is one of Queen St’s most instantly recognisable office towers, sitting directly across from Aotea Square and the Auckland Town Hall.

The location is at the gateway to the city’s education precinct. Reflecting this, the School of Tourism has been training students for 35 years and specialises in training programmes for the airline, travel and tourism industries.

The property is currently 96 per cent leased, generating total net annual income of $1.785 million plus GST and outgoings. When fully leased, the annual rental figure is forecast to lift to $1.959 million plus GST and outgoings.

The building has a New Building Standards rating of 77 per cent with the office areas recently refurbished to a superior standard.

The freehold land and building are being marketed for sale by international tender through Bayleys Auckland, with tender offers closing at 4pm on Thursday, May 5, 2022 (unless sold prior).

Salespeople James Chan and Owen Ding said the property provided a diversified income stream.

“Sitting strategically as it does so close to multiple major education facilities, foodservice operator Nando’s benefits from substantial foot traffic consisting mainly of hungry and thirsty tertiary students at three different institutions,” said Chan.

He said that in addition to increasing the rent roll by tenanting the currently vacant space, the property also had considerable development upside.

“There is also extensive future potential, subject to appropriate council consents, to convert the location into an apartment block after the current leases expire,” he said.

Ding said the location was set to substantially benefit from major infrastructure upgrades such as the City Rail Link and the building was perfectly positioned to benefit from residential, office and infrastructural developments currently under way in the area.