Yet another waterfront campground goes on the market

Media Release

1.5.2017

Yet another waterfront campground goes on the market for sale

Holidaymakers at a picturesque coastal camping ground may have spent their last summer there under the stars – with the property being placed on the market for sale.

The Shelly Beach Top 10 Campground some five kilometres north of Coromandel township at 243 Colville Road on the Coromandel Peninsula is the latest seaside holiday park to come up for sale.

The Shelly Beach Top 10 Campground is spread over 5.9627 hectares of land and contains a multitude of accommodation options – ranging from powered caravan plots and tent sites, through to variously configured budget cabins. It is one of the few campgrounds in New Zealand to operate its own effluent disposal facilities.

The site has been operating as a campground for almost three decades years – servicing a ‘core’ group of holidaymakers who regularly camp at the holiday park every Christmas/New Year break, along with a substantial number of forward booking and ‘walk up’ guests.

Husband and wife partnership Larry and Joan Knudsen have been running the campground for the past 25 years – developing its accommodation capacity substantially over the decades.

The seaside campground is a virtual ’turn-key’ operation - coming complete with all operating infrastructure, including:

· 85 individual grassed sites for tent campers

· 61powered sites for caravans and camper vans

· 12 standard one-bedroom cabins

· 1 fully self-contained unit with its own kitchen facilities

· 4 motel-style two-bedroom units

· A general store/camp management office which doubles up as the settlement’s corner dairy

· Two communal toilet and bathroom blocks

· A communal industrial-grade kitchen amenity with fridges, freezers, electric hobs and microwave ovens, with a separate BBQ facility supported by picnic tables

· A communal coin-operated laundry facility

· Children’s playground with in-ground ‘jumping pillow’ trampoline

· A three-bedroom 125 square metre owner/manager’s homestead

and

· 14 caravan sites reserved for tenants on annual leases

The Shelly Beach Top 10 Campground freehold land, buildings and business are being marketed for sale at auction on May 18 through Bayleys Waikato. The business is being sold as a going concern - with cabins and powered sites already booked for the coming 2017/2018 summer.

Bayleys Waikato salesperson Josh Smith said the camp’s land-holding was divided between 2.75 hectares supporting the tourism business, and 3.2 hectares sustaining the effluent disposal plant and settling ponds. The land and buildings on their own have a council rating valuation of $2.1 million, with the value of the business to be calculated separately.

“Shelly Beach Top 10 Campground could remain in its current format – sustaining a ‘lifestyle’ business for the on-site owner/operators. Alternatively, it could be expanded – either by adding more budget cabins, or adding units with greater degrees of guest comforts,” Mr Smith said.

“Moving up the add-value ladder, the flat topography of the park would perfectly suit the trend of accommodating refurbished 40 – 60 foot stainless steel shipping containers transformed into chic baches which can be easily transported on and off most sites in a similar way to caravans…..except that they are transported on the back of trucks.

“At the zenith of future-use opportunities, and of course subject to council consents, is the potential to build more salubrious permanent dwellings which could either be run as privately-owned or leased residences for exclusive use, or placed into the holiday park’s main accommodation pool when not utilised by the owners.”

The marketing of the Shelly Beach Top 10 Campground for sale follows in the path of several other long-standing coastal holiday parks in the Waikato/Counties region last year.

Port Waikato Holiday Park on the Manukau Harbour headlands was sold to local Iwi Ngati Karewa and Ngati Tahinga in September 2016. The two organisations have expressed an intention to continue operating the park for recreational purposes in the immediate future, with the option of developing social housing for kaumatua over the longer-term.

Then immediately after, Big Bay Holiday Park on the shores off the lower Manukau Harbour was placed on the market for sale in November. Meanwhile, at the top of the South Island, Golden Bay Holiday Park in Tukurua Bay was also placed on the market for sale in November - attracting international buyer attention from as far away as Switzerland, North America and the UK.

Shelly Beach Top 10 Campground has a council rating valuation of $1.125 million for the land and buildings alone, without the business.

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