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Inside The Sun
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Wednesday March 10, 2010
Farmers site sale
Plunket sickened by theft Thieves steal money raised for infant car seats.
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Bring on the mountain! Wine Marlborough’s marketing manager up for a challenge.
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MARLBOROUGH
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Quarter of a hectare floor space in heart of CBD By Richard Miller A landmark central Blenheim property, with a floor area you could graze a couple of sheep in, is up for sale. Offers are being sought for the Farmers department store property – with a floor area of a quarter of a hectare - on the corner of Market and High Streets. The current lease to Farmers lasts until late next year, and there are also two smaller tenants, which bring in a total rent of $321,000 a year. Owned by a small group of Marlborough and Auckland investors, the property over two floors is being marketed through Colliers International. “It’s hard to say what it would sell for but the property has a rateable value of $3.8 million,� said Rick Stace, speaking to the Sun from Colliers Wellington office.
“We only started marketing last Friday but it’s fair to say there’s not much development going on at the moment.� However, he said with investors currently shying away from bare land it was “an ideal time to pick up a site like that� and wait for the market to improve. “If someone was looking to develop whether in two years time or slightly down the track they would have plenty of time to sort it out,� he said. It was rare for a property of this size and stature to come on to the market. The character building, offering a floor area of 2578m squared, was originally built in the 1930s for Farmers Trading Company and rebuilt after a fire in 1976. “It’s an excellent chance to pick up a prime site that hasn’t been available for a long, long
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time,� he said. “It’s one of the biggest sites in Marlborough, huge development potential and located on a prominent corner in the heart of the town centre.� An added attraction was that there was a holding income until the end of next year. “The buyer would have a reasonable amount of time to piece together finance and secure tenants,� he said. He suspected that any buyer would concentrate on splitting the retail into smaller tenancies to generate a higher price per metre and by developing the first floor into offices. “It has such a large footprint offering plenty of options. It could work well if someone was prepared to put a bit of effort into developing the site into either a large retail format or smaller tenancies with offices and apartments on top.�