Major food export coldstore site goes up for sale

The land and buildings housing a major storage and distribution facility servicing New Zealand’s leading food exporters has been placed on the market for sale.

The large industrial coldstore facility at 7-13 Te Maire Street, near the Port of Tauranga in the Mount Maunganui industrial precinct, is fully leased to Cold Storage Nelson Limited (CSN).

CSN has earned a reputation as a leading provider of temperature-controlled storage and handling of primary produce and manufactured foods destined for domestic and overseas markets. Its Mount Maunganui facility caters primarily for meat and seafood products.

The company has four storage hubs around the country, including one nearby at the Port of Tauranga, with a combined capacity of 50,000 tonnes.

Since its beginnings in 1975, CSN has established itself as a frontrunner in cutting edge technology such as robotic racking systems, real-time online inventory tracking and management, and energy-efficient operations.

CSN pays annual rent of $854,630 plus outgoings and GST for the Mount Maunganui site on a lease that runs through to 2029, with two further five-year rights of renewal. The lease incorporates three-yearly market rental reviews, with CPI rent increases in the years between.

The owner of the Mount Maunganui coldstore facility, NZX-listed fishing giant Sanford, has now put the property on the market. The freehold land and buildings at 7-13 Te Maire Street are being marketed for sale by way of a tender on 26 November (unless sold prior), through Bayleys Tauranga.

The family sales team of Brendon, Ryan and Lynn Bradley said the property consisted of some 16,251 square metres of flat industrial land over two titles with approximately 5,961 square metres of well-presented buildings.

Brendon Bradley said the buildings comprised two standalone coldstore or freezer structures at the rear of the site with an ancillary plant room in between, along with two office and staff amenity blocks closer to the road front at Te Maire Street.

“Site improvements include a substantial concrete and hot mix yard and off-street parking at the front. An area of undeveloped land with road frontage offers the potential to add value by increasing the lettable area through future expansion.”

The Te Maire Street property has security fencing along most of its boundaries.

Mr Bradley said the west coldstore building contained five freezer rooms totalling some 2,091 square metres, with the two smallest rooms used as blast freezers.

“To the rear of the freezer space is an enclosed load-out area while in front there is a substantial canopy enabling trucks to load and unload to the freezer space. The plant room houses the refrigeration units and a forklift charging area,” Mr Bradley said.

“The east coldstore structure features a large freezer room of approximately 1,531 square metres, along with a marshalling area and enclosed load-out area. The office building incorporates reception, three offices, toilets and a storage room. The amenities block provides a kitchen and lunchroom, locker rooms and bathroom facilities plus a covered deck.”

The west coldstore building was built in the early 1980s and the east coldstore mid 1990s. The east and west buildings are portal-frame structures with expanded polystyrene panelling, and polypanel and longrun metal roofing.

The property at 7-13 Te Maire Street has an expansive 130-metre frontage to Te Maire Street with two vehicle access points.

“Combined with the sealed front yard and parking area, this enables easy vehicle access onto and around the site,” Ryan Bradley said.

Lynn Bradley said the Te Maire Street site was zoned Industrial under Tauranga City Council’s operative district plan.

“This zoning seeks to consolidate industrial, service and related activities in locations with strategic transport links. It allows for a range of industrial and port activities, plus wider uses including ancillary office and retail, trade supplies, takeaway food outlets and service stations,” Ms Bradley said.

“The Te Maire Street premises benefit from a prime location with strategic road and rail links beside New Zealand’s largest exporting port. The Bay of Plenty region it is part of is home to the country’s strongest regional economic growth.

“Tauranga and Mount Maunganui increasingly profit from their position at one corner of the fast-growing ‘Golden Triangle’ between Auckland, Hamilton and Tauranga – home to half of the country’s population and GDP,” said Ms Bradley.

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