Home-décor retail complex spotlights real estate opportunity for switched-on investors

A strategically located chic-looking building in the heart of Nelson’s home design and décor store precinct has been placed on the market for sale.

The building – which houses substantial showrooms for home supply outlets Lightingplus and Nood – is located in Nelson’s CBD, adjacent to other home outfitting store such as Briscoes and specialty bathroom outlet Spacio Casa.

Occupying some 1379sqaure-metres of space, the Achilles Avenue building overlooks one of three council-operated car parks in the central city.

The property was developed only a few years ago by interests associated with the Stevenson family – well known around Nelson for establishing the city’s long-standing Ford automotive dealership back in the 1938. The company owns three other retail and commercial sites in Nelson.

The Achilles Avenue block is currently leased to three tenants:

• Nood has an eight year lease running through to 2015 with two further six-year right of renewals
• Lighting plus has a nine year lease running through to 2016
• An office suite on the mezzanine level has a two year lease running through to 2012 with two further two-year right of renewals.

Combined, the three tenancies generate $298,000 worth of income (exclusive of GST).

The Achilles Avenue property is being marketed by Bayleys Nelson, with offers closing on June 30. Bayleys sales consultant Doug McKee said the property’s proximity to similar home ware stores, and the bonus of abutting onto Wakatu car park, were strong draw cards for the two retail businesses operating within the premises.

“Cluster or hub marketing has become a trend in New Zealand retail over the past decade – where groups of like-minded retailers site their businesses close to other such outlets for maximum customer shopping efficiency,” he said.

“This trend first began with car yards and farm machinery sales yards back 1960s, but gathered momentum into the mainstream retail sector in the late 1990s when the likes of furnishings and white ware retailers, DIY building and landscaping centres, and home décor outlets began clustering.

“However, such retail clusters are usually located on the outskirts of cities in semi-industrial parts of town – so Nelson is fairly unique in having such a retail hub virtually in the CBD.”

Mr McKee said the architect-designed Achilles Avenue property had been ‘future-proof constructed’ – allowing for additional floor space to potentially be added.

“The design and construction of the Lightingplus/Nood building allows for future development of a mezzanine floor above the retail spaces. This could be suitable for either expansion of the existing businesses below, or for the creation of new office units,” he said.