Ezibuy for property investors

Fashion label head office, international call centre and retail outlet marketed as an Ezibuy for property investors

The head office, international call centre and flagship retail outlet for popular fashion label Ezibuy has been placed on the market for sale.

Ezibuy’s corporate HQ in Palmerston North consists of a 2804 square metre building sitting on a 6190 square high profile corner site with a 101 metre frontage onto John F Kennedy Drive.

The dominating building was built as the ‘flagship’ store for Ezibuy in 2001. The structure was extended and reconfigured in 2011 through a $2million refurbishment programme to provide substantial new offices, retail space, stockroom, and the company’s call centre.

The site is located in the Fair Acres Industrial Estate on the northern fringe of Palmerston North’s CBD. John F Kennedy Drive links State Highway 3 with the city centre and the airport. Commercial neighbours in the vicinity include a Ford dealership, Smith City, Hunting and Fishing, and Turners Car Auctions.

Ezibuy has an initial 10 year lease on the building from 2012, with a further 10 year right of renewal taking the potential tenancy out to 2032. The lease currently generates annual rental of $552,948 per annum plus GST. Annual rent reviews are linked to the consumer price index while being capped and collared between one and three percent.

The premises is constructed of concrete slab panels, with aluminium joinery and a colour steel roof. Four defined zones operate within the building:
-The retail store consists of changing rooms, customer toilets, manager’s office, mail order room, stock room and staff facilities.

-Administrative offices featuring an IT room, 12 offices, large meeting room, an open plan communal office space, small staffroom and sample room.

-The call centre containing three offices, large operations room, training room, accounts office and mail room.
and

-Common area/amenities including a large staffroom with kitchen, men’s and ladies toilets, first aid room, and computer support room.

With an annual turnover running into hundreds of millions of dollars, more than 800 staff, and a strong database of active customers, EziBuy is regarded as a hugely successful and progressive direct marketing business. The company mails more than 23 million catalogues to Australasian customers each year, and more than 15,000 items are dispatched daily to customers on both sides of the Tasman.

This year the company won two highly-acclaimed marketing accolades. EziBuy’s success saw it clinch the inaugural Keith Norris Award for NZ Direct Marketing Organisation of the Year at the 2013 NZ Direct Marketing Awards, and being named as one of the Top 10 International e-Commerce sites by Australian magazine, Inside Retail.

EziBuy this year celebrated 35 years of retail success. EziBuy opened its first store in Palmerston North in 1978 and launched into Australia in 1992. The company now receives more than 480,000 orders every month and is the largest fashion and home decor multi-channel retailer in Australasia.

The Ezibuy HQ and retail store in Palmerston North is being sold by Bayleys, with the marketing campaign being jointly run by Mike Houlker in Auckland and Karl Cameron in Palmerston North. Offers for the building close on September 4.

“From a large scale investment perspective, the John F Kennedy Drive property seems to tick the four pre-eminent requirements for commercial investors. A significant aesthetically attractive building, in an excellent location, with a major reputable tenant on a long lease with built-in annual rental grown,” Mr Houlker said.

The building has an asphalt-sealed car parking for 100 vehicles, with landscaped garden areas of shrubs and small trees. The rear service entry and staff amenity areas are security fenced.

Mr Cameron said that with Palmerston North City Council planning to release more city-fringe land for development, the Fair Acres Industrial Estate was set to benefit from a new era of commercial and retail building growth.

“Businesses like to be surrounded with growth and activity – and there will certainly be plenty of that emanating around Fair Acres for quite some years to come. This activity will underpin existing land values, while the breadth of new businesses coming into the locality, particularly those with a bulk retail focus, will support the area as a mixed use shopping destination,” Mr Cameron said.

ENDS

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