Top Shopping Opportunity In Hawke’s Bay

A prime Hastings CBD retail property is being offered for sale with over 10 years to run on its current lease to one of New Zealand’s largest retailers.

Located at 244 Heretaunga Street West, the offering encompasses a modern 6,689sqm two-level commercial building with an A Grade seismic assessment on a large 3,839sqm corner site in the heart of the Hawke’s Bay city’s CBD retail precinct.

The property was extensively redeveloped and upgraded in 2011/12 to accommodate a Farmers Department store with high ceilings and an escalator, as well as lifts, connecting the two floors.

Farmers Trading Company leases most of the building with the other long-standing occupant being TSB Bank. It has an 187sqm ground floor tenancy in a high-profile corner position at the intersection of Heretaunga Street West and King Street.

The property is currently generating net annual rental income of approximately $1,470,000.

The property is for sale by private treaty and is being marketed by Mike Houlker and Sunil Bhana of Bayleys Auckland in conjunction with Kerry Geange, Bayleys Hawke’s Bay’s commercial manager, and Colliers Hawke’s Bay Director Danny Blair.

Farmers’ original 15-year lease ran through until July 2027 but it has exercised the first of three five-year rights of renewal early which Houlker says is an indication of the strength of the location. This takes Farmers’ current occupation through until July 2032, with two further five-year rights of renewal available after that.

Farmers operates 59 stores across New Zealand, specialising in family fashion, beauty, homewares, furniture, large appliances and whiteware. Its Hastings property also incorporates a Stevens gift shop which like Farmers is part of the James Pascoe Group. In addition to the retail areas, the building also has offices, lunchroom facilities and other amenities as well as rear storage areas.

The Farmers lease also includes nine on-site car parks. There is also good public car parking around the building, including parallel parks along both Heretaunga Street West and King St and at the rear of the property which is accessed from Eastbourne St West, the third road which the building has frontage to.

The TSB Bank lease which commenced in 2007 expires in September 2022 with no further rights of renewal. Bhana says this offers the next owner the opportunity to add value by either negotiating a new long-term lease to TSB or looking at other tenancy options for this prime corner retail premises.

Geange says properties of this scale and quality in central Hastings are tightly held and rarely come to market, particularly where they have tenants of this calibre.

Blair says is it one of the city’s premium sites. “This property is a jewel in the crown of the ‘200’ block in Hastings that generates high foot traffic and is strategically positioned among a host of national retail brands.”

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