'Stop The Press' – Huge Development Opportunities Identified

Media Release

'Stop The Press' – Huge Development Opportunities Identified For Newspaper Offices.

A strategically located building and sizeable block of land straddling Blenheim’s central business district and the inner-city residential suburbs has been placed on the market for sale.

The 3761 square metre site houses the offices and former printing press warehouse of the Marlborough Express newspaper and lies within the city’s Urban Residential One zone which allows for the creation of high density residential activity.

Urban Residential One zoning allows for sections to be created to a minimum of 290 square metres – suitable for terraced housing or the potential for a low-rise apartment complex. The level property has existing commercial use rights for a publishing business and associated office space.

The property – which sits on the corner of Arthur and Henry streets - is being marketed for sale by Bayleys Marlborough, with offers closing on April 30. Bayleys Marlborough commercial sales specialist Grant Baxter said that subject to appropriate resource consents, the site had a myriad of development opportunities.

Mr Baxter said that in addition to potential for redevelopment into a residential block, the site also had a multitude of possibilities for purely commercial development.

He said the building’s internal layout could be kept relatively intact and reconfigured into a mix of commercial office space or for use as a multi-practitioner healthcare medical centre. The post-war constructed building has had a number of additions, renovations and interior modernisations bolted on over the past 50-years around a core frame of concrete block, timber and steel.

“With a substantial street frontage of some 135 square metres over two busy roads, and 50 car parks currently permitted, there is the option to create a commercial hub of like-minded businesses,” Mr Baxter said.

Within the structure is 754 square metres of ground floor office space, with an additional 228 square metres of office amenities immediately above on the first floor, and an adjacent 730 square metres of workshops and warehousing. In addition to an entrance foyer and multiple office suites, the building has bathroom amenities, a staff room with kitchen, and numerous purpose-built storage areas.

“There has even been the suggestion of part conversion of the warehousing premises into a large undercover childcare and play centre facility serviced by a stand-alone branded café and potential retailing units specialising in products and services catering to the under-sevens and their parents,” he said.

The Marlborough Express moved its printing operations into the Arthur Street site in 1966.
Commercial printing works at the location were disestablished in 1981, although the newspaper’s editorial, advertising, and administrative personnel moved into a new building on the site a year later.

The newspaper is relocating and operations will eventually be moving out of the Arthur/Henry Street corner premises when the final sale settlement terms are concluded. The land and building have a 2011 capital valuation of $2.43million.

“Until all offers are presented to the vendor though, it’s hard to know exactly what the future holds for the Marlborough Express site – simply because it is so big, has such a broad mix of building, warehousing and car parking, and all in addition to being strategically located at the edge of the CBD on an axis gateway to the outlying suburbs of Blenheim,” Mr Baxter said.

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Caption: Huge development potential under a multitude of options exists for the strategically-located Marlborough Express newspaper headquarters - on the market for sale in central Blenheim.

ENDS

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