Prime commercial land, formerly the headquarters of Owens Transport, is up for sale across from Port of Tauranga.
The two freehold sites, totalling 1,867-square metres, are being sold as one offering.
Located on the corner of Rata Street and Nikau Crescent in Mount Maunganui, the land is zoned commercial 8C under the Tauranga Council district plan – allowing for a construction height of up to 12 metres.
The sections are located directly across the road from the mooring and passenger boarding and disembarkation facilities for cruise liners visiting the port of Tauranga.
The Rata Street/Nikau Crescent block, zoned city centre under the council’s district plan, is surrounded by port-related commercial offices such as customs brokers and the regional headquarters of HMS Customs, retail outlets, and apartments.
The properties are now being marketed an “excellent blank canvas” development opportunity through Bayleys Tauranga salespeople Lloyd Davidson and Sarah Schouwenburg. An auction is being held at 1pm on May 1.
“The site is positioned directly across from the Port of Tauranga, much of which their core activity consists of container, produce, and people movement, from Mount Maunganui’s more commercial and high street retail precinct,” Davidson says.
“Design configurations for any new building on the Rata/Nikau site could easily factor in retail units at street level, with commercial floors above. Or a boutique hotel to accommodate passengers either embarking onto cruises calling in at Tauranga, or terminating their journey at the port.”
The Port of Tauranga hosted 114 cruise ships over the 2018/19 season which runs from October to April, with the same number of liner berths forecast for the 2019/20 season.
“With tens of thousands of cruise passengers now utilising the Pilot Bay berthage over what is effectively a seven-month season, the Mount Maunganui retail environment and wider Bay of Plenty tourism sector has benefitted from this growth,” Davidson says.
“Such sector activity provides the obvious economic foundations for the future potential use of the Rata Street/Nikau Crescent site and its most likely tenancies.”
The site previously housed the head office for what became the Owens Group. At that time, this was the main base for the original stevedore business that managed the beginnings of the NZ log and timber trade to Japan.
Sales data for large blocks of bare land purchased in Mount Maunganui over the past nine months shows that 2118-square metres of land at nearby 2 Rata Street sold for a per square metre rate of $2,630, while 800-square metres of land at 33 Totara Street sold for a per square metre rate of $3,870.
