Landmark Tauranga commercial complex goes up for sale

Syndicated owners are selling the landmark retail, office and cinema hub in Tauranga’s CBD located at 21 Devonport Road. The complex offers a total net lettable floor area of some 2,865 square metres on 2,523 square metres of freehold land.

Known as the Goddards Centre, the property is a quality two-level commercial complex spread over 30 tenancies, with prominent frontages onto Tauranga’s two main retail streets, Devonport Road and Grey Street.

It currently generates annual passing rental income of $326,812 plus outgoings and GST from leases covering 1,347 square metres, with the opportunity to optimise and diversify the tenant mix by filling a number of ground-floor vacancies. Appraised annual net rental for the entire site is approximately $700,000.

The property is now being marketed for sale by tender closing on 20 November (unless sold prior) through Bayleys Tauranga.

This presents a unique opportunity for a new owner to build up a future-proofed rent roll to maximise income, with further add-value options to reconfigure or redevelop the site, according to the family sales team of Brendon, Lynn and Ryan Bradley.

The site is zoned City Centre Business under Tauranga City Council’s operative district plan, supporting retail shops and offices as permitted activities and allowing multi-level development up to 49 metres high.

“Investors can aim high with the option of further development to take advantage of a 49-metre height limit, along with the massive potential and boundless opportunities the scale of this property provides,” said Brendon Bradley.

Key tenants at the Goddards Centre include Rialto Tauranga with their three cinemas, a café and bar, global wealth-planning providers Southpac Group, national skin and beauty chain Caci Clinic, and the Collar & Thai Restaurant which has occupied the Goddards Centre for 26 years – as well as long-established retail occupants Hammon Jewellers and Step Inn Shoes.

“The complex presents a striking and instantly recognisable frontage to Devonport Road, with an exterior featuring clean, modern lines with glowing copper/aluminium cladding and a grand entrance façade with steel beams and a glazed canopy,” said Brendon.

A similar frontage on Grey Street, though smaller, offers a striking entrance beneath a cathedral-style glazed canopy.

“The building underwent a significant upgrade between 2004 and 2008, ensuring a modern, well-maintained accommodation offering throughout. Tenancy fitouts are contemporary with various flooring, wall, lighting and ceiling finishes and individualised glass frontages,” Brendon said.

The L-shaped structure has seismic ratings ranging from 100 percent of new building standard at the northern section, to 91 percent at the eastern part and 67 percent in the western segment.

The property incorporates a busy pedestrian thoroughfare connecting Devonport Road and Grey Street and is within convenient walking distance of banks, professional offices, post office and commercial services, as well as the inner-city transport hub and the city’s waterfront precinct.

Lynn Bradley said the complex was perfectly positioned to reap the benefits of a wave of development driven by Tauranga’s status as one of New Zealand’s fastest-growing cities.

“The growing CBD is undergoing a transformation with the addition of Waikato University’s new Tauranga campus, the Quest Tauranga Central hotel and the Bay of Plenty Regional Council building. Other major developments are afoot to deliver new offices, retail amenities and apartments including the $200 million Farmers project. These developments will bring new life and vibrancy to the city centre,” she said.

Ryan said other locational advantages also support investment in Tauranga – led by its strategic position in the ‘Golden Triangle’ stretching to Auckland, two and a half hours away, and Hamilton at one hour fifteen minutes. This zone accounts for over half of the nation’s population and GDP, he said.

The Bay of Plenty recorded the nation’s strongest percentage growth in regional GDP in the five years to March 2019. Demand for local goods and services is underpinned by a rapidly growing population, swelling by 8.5 percent in the five years ending June 2018 and tipped to add another 8.7 percent by 2028.

“Commercial investment properties of the scale of Goddards are in short supply in Tauranga in the current market. Investors, developers or corporates will see attractive add-value possibilities to capitalise on the potential of this high quality, well located mixed-use commercial asset,” Ryan said.

“With a height limit of up to 49 metres available, the potential for apartments is obvious given the panoramic views across the harbour.

“Buyers are encouraged to take advantage of the current income stream and bring fresh thinking to either rename, reconfigure, or re-tenant as a vibrant laneway, or look to the sky for future development.”

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