Property developers in pole position to buy up automotive hub
The land and buildings sustaining one of Auckland’s biggest combined second-hand car sales outlets and automotive spare
parts breakers yards have been placed on the market for sale – with the potential for the location to become a new urban
hospitality hub for the city.
Osaka Cars and ANZ Auto Parts has been operating from the Manurewa premises in South Auckland for six years –
simultaneously selling Japanese-imported vehicles and breaking down thousands of cars, then recycling their engines,
body panels and interiors for replacement parts.
The location is zoned business light industrial under Auckland council’s plan, and sits directly beside what used to be
Manukau Golf Club which ceased existence several years ago to be replaced by Fletcher Living’s upmarket Waiata Shores
residential enclave.
Now the expansive 1.68-hectare property at 325A – 327 Great South Road is being marketed for sale by tender through
Bayleys Counties, with tenders closing at 3pm on August 7.
Bayleys South Auckland salespeople Piyush Kumar and Peter Migounoff said the Great South Road offering consisted of two
titles – which could either be purchased individually or jointly. The smaller portion of land consisted of 3,288 square
metres, while the bigger portion consisted of 1.35 hectares of land. Both were zoned business light industry.
Mr Kumar said the property was being sold as ‘vacant possession’ - with the vendor offering a six-month settlement date
allowing any potential new owner to take possession early next year.
“In its current format, the property consists of vast open spaces packed and stacked with an immense selection of cars
being sold and dismantled, along with eight garage/warehouse style buildings,” Mr Kumar said.
“The buildings are aptly useable for industrial purposes in the short to medium term, but safe to say the structures are
fairly dated and are not necessarily the most efficient use for this site long term.
“Accordingly, the site has been identified as prime for total redevelopment into a more efficient land-use activity. The
property’s convenient location less than a kilometre away from on-ramps to the Southern Motorway makes the site an
attractive proposition for developers or owner-occupiers involved in the transport, warehousing or freight logistics
sectors requiring large premises.”
Mr Kumar said the unified sites would also be suitable for developing a new hospitality hub capable of servicing three
separate large-scale property developments within the immediate vicinity, all of which were being designed to
accommodate the city’s growing population
The trio of multi-billion-dollar development projects include:
• The already-emerging Waiata Shores subdivision sitting directly across from the Great South Road landholding and
separated by free-flowing Papakura Stream which flows into the Manukau Harbour. On completion, the Waiata Shores enclave
will encompass some 500 new homes – built in a mixture of terraced, duplex and stand-alone configurations.
• The 51-hectare Drury Town Centre project being undertaken by NZX-listed Kiwi Property over a 20-year period.
and
• The 360-hectare housing and business park development also in Drury being driven by infrastructure giant
Stevenson.
“Creating a food and beverage hub with multiple operators in this one location on Great South Road would not only
satisfy the demands of the growing residential population on one side, but would also service the hospitality needs for
staff working in the substantial number adjacent commercial and industrial businesses located between Mahia Road to the
west and Spartan Road to the east,” Mr Kumar said.
“Conceptually, a new hospitality destination could be based on the models already operating at Brickworks in New Lynn or
Te Pumanawa Square at the NorthWest Shopping Centre.
“At present, the nearest such hospitality amenity for the local business community is quite some distance away in the
Manukau City precinct, so there is a huge gap in the market for a local dining hub to service the Manurewa commercial
workforce.”
Mr Migounoff said an alternative option for the Great South Road addresses, subject to a rezoning of the site by
Auckland Council, would be as a medium to high density housing project.
“With the KiwiBuild affordable home initiative entering a new phase earlier this month taking in huge numbers of
registrations from potential buyers, there is now a more urgent need to locate as many suitable construction sites as
possible for scaled residential developments in Auckland to proceed,” Mr Migounoff said.
“Already, less than 100 metres away, we are seeing the major transformation of former green space recreational land into
a whole new subdivision. The potential creation of footbridges over Papakura Creek would allow for the expansion of that
subdivision, which could then be totally aligned with the KiwiBuild ethos of delivering affordable homes.”