Prominent vacant Albany office floor for sale or lease

8.7.2019

Large office premises on the first floor of a prominent William Pickering Drive Business Park building are on the market for sale or lease.

The top-level 573 square metre floorplate in a high-exposure, low-vacancy North Shore location at 27-29 William Pickering Drive, Rosedale is being sold or leased vacant, although until recently it was tenanted by Phoneplus, a customer contact call centre.

Phoneplus was using only part of the large office floor. Bayleys North Shore salespeople Dean Gilbert-Smith and Stephen Scott, who are marketing the property for sale or lease by private treaty closing on August 8, say it can be split into two tenancies.

“It is configured as a big single floorplate with a mix of open plans and partitioned offices in good condition. Two separate businesses could easily operate from the floor, which has an above average number of 18 car parks, and a serious presence on the corner of William Pickering and Piermark Drives in North Shore's popular Rosedale commercial hub,” Mr Gilbert-Smith said.

Suitable for an owner-occupier office-based business, a branded co-working space or a buyer with a tenant already secured, Mr Gilbert-Smith said office buildings or floors in this area could become a scarcity in the future with the area rezoned as light industrial in Auckland Council's Unitary Plan.

Co-working office space is increasingly popular for entrepreneurs just starting out right through to corporates, which want to set up teams for specific projects away from their main premises.

Many start-ups begin at their homes and eventually need to move out, but not to traditional offices, and will gladly pay for a place where they can lease a desk, use meeting and boardrooms, fast internet and other amenities such as an on-site cafe and make human connections advantageous to business.

“Owned by a trust, which would prefer to sell the floor, it can, however, be leased on preferably a six-year term, although three to four years would also be considered at rent of about $255 a square metre,” Mr Gilbert-Smith said.

“Prices for property of this type and size vary, but the average is about $4,000 a square metre, a yield of 6.5-7 percent based on notional rent.”

The freehold unit was built in about 2000 when the office park was developed for mainly office tenants.

“It has straightforward general office space in terms of layout,” Mr Gilbert-Smith said.

“The biggest benefit for a new owner or tenant is the building's profile and presence on William Pickering Drive.”

The property is part of a seven-building business park that has a mix of high-grade office, showroom and light industrial properties, forming part of the North Harbour/Albany office industrial estate> William Pickering Drive is the major thoroughfare through the estate.

Surrounding development includes substantial larger warehouse/office properties but predominantly freehold office and semi-retail showrooms of a similar age. “

This is a desirable location that has seen an uptick in buyer and tenant demand over recent years,” Mr Gilbert-Smith said.

“Buyer confidence in the area has been steady and has recently bounced back after the Labour-led coalition government scrapped plans for a capital gains tax,” Mr Gilbert-Smith said.

Albany is one of the North Shore's fastest growing suburbs and emerging as Auckland's newest city centre, with prominent developers involved in large-scale projects. Todd Property Group, Goodman, Argosy, Willis Bond, Westfield, Progressive and others are capitalising on Albany's intensive development, he said.

The property is about five minutes from Auckland's Northern Motorway and more than 9,000 cars a day pass the property, giving it a high profile. It is also well linked to surrounding suburbs, such as Long Bay, Browns Bay, Coatesville, Silverdale and other suburban hubs.

Access on and off the motorway is by the Constellation Drive/North Harbour ramps. There is also good access by the North Western Motorway through to Henderson and the Waterview Tunnel taking traffic south of the city.

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