CENTREPORT’S plan
to sell a 50 per cent share of its Wellington waterfront office portfolio has
generated a lot of interest, says Colliers International agent Bill Leckie.
He has recently
returned from an international tour to provide information to interested
parties.
Colliers managing
director Richard Findlay said Asian and European buyers had shown the most
interest. This was understandable given the scale of the offering. The
buildings have a combined rating value of $160 million.
CentrePort property
manager Nick Wareham said the port company was looking for a joint venture
partner willing to make a 50 per cent investment in its BNZ, Statistics House
and Customhouse buildings on the waterfront.
‘‘We have a solid
track record and have demonstrated that we can build and manage A-grade
buildings that attract blue-chip tenants, so we now want to realise some of
those gains to further develop Harbour Quays,’’ Mr Wareham said.
Both the BNZ
building and Customhouse have five-star and greenstar ratings. The three
buildings are tenanted by BNZ, Statistics New Zealand and the New Zealand
Customs Service.
Mr Findlay said
demand for space in this area was high. ‘‘These offices satisfied a natural
flow of tenant demand from the southern end of the city to the north because of
its close proximity to the city’s transport, Government and business hub.’’
CentrePort’s vision
for the waterfront land mirrors the creation of the Docklands in Melbourne,
which has a first-class mixed-use environment with spectacular views of the
harbour for its modern community.
CentrePort’s
Harbour Quays masterplan ultimately includes linking Wellington’s waterfront
from the Overseas Terminal near Wellington’s Oriental Bay beach to Harbour
Quays on the northern side of the port.
Mr Wareham said the
first stage of the Harbour Quays master plan was now complete.
‘‘The location and
concept has been proven. Three state-of-the-art, strategically located office
buildings have been built to satisfy the natural flow of tenants seeking a
waterfront location.
‘‘We found no
shortage of demand for tenants, with one of New Zealand’s biggest blue-chip
banks and two solid government departments quickly securing their waterfront
position at Harbour Quays. Interest continues to grow in the area, with
pleasing discussions progressing for its planned fourth
20,000-square-metre-plus office project.’’
The local
government-owned port company wants to raise cash for further property
development and to enlarge its role in the transport sector in the lower North
Island.
The property portfolio
includes the 20,500sqm BNZ building, finished just last year; the 9400sqm
Statistics NZ building finished in 2005; and the 7000sqm Customs building,
which should be finished in September.
CentrePort chief
executive Blair O’Keeffe said it was prepared to sell up to 50 per cent of the
buildings. How much the port could raise is not clear, but the BNZ building has
a rateable value of $95m and the Statistics building has a rating value of just
under $30m.
Mr O’Keeffe agreed
a possible use for the funds would be to find solutions to the port’s growing
logging storage problem. At present the port is crammed to capacity, with logs
and its Seaview storage is nearly full. Also, demand for logs has doubled in
the past two years and is projected to double again within three to five years.
‘‘We are working
with the forestry exporters to look at transport solutions and those involve
road rail and inland hubbing options.
‘‘We can only store
about 30,000 cubic metres on site here and the average large vessel that now
calls into Wellington can take most of that in one hit, so we do need to create
more storage space off port.’
Raising debt had
not been considered, Mr O’Keeffe said. The port’s swerve into property development
had captured some value ‘‘and it’s a responsible way for us to manage our
balance sheet without relying on debt as the primary means of funding for
growth’’.
Harbour Quays had
not reached its capacity under the district plan ‘‘and we certainly intend to
continue to progress [it] to the point where we reach the top end of what’s
allowable’’.
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