For the first time in about five years, as many as four freehold properties are for sale in Queenstown’s highest-profile industrial subdivision, Frankton’s Glenda Dr.
They include two side-by-side properties opposite the large Carters building — Queenstown Car Wash, on the corner with Hawthorne Dr, and one occupied by EZU Car Rentals, whose lease runs till the end of January.
The latter has an asking price of $2.75 million.
The other properties coming to market, at 27 Glenda Dr and 117 Glenda Dr, comprise, respectively, four highly-specced units on a single title and a site with a shortly-expiring lease that’s considered a good development opportunity for an owner-occupier.
The latter’s going to auction on November 9.
Local Colliers tourism development and business broker Barry Robertson says originally just the owner of the rental car yard at 234 Glenda Dr wanted to sell.
The owner of the car wash property, at 236 Glenda Dr, was then convinced it could be a good time to sell, too, as someone might want to pick up both sites ‘‘because they’re such a strategic land-holding’’.
‘‘One and one could make three.’’
Prime opportunity: The EZU car rentals property and neighbouring Queenstown Car Wash property are for sale at the same time
The former property’s 1173 square metres and the latter’s 1404sqm, so there’d be a chance to land-bank, or develop, a 1577sqm site.
‘‘It would make a fantastic service station, subject to planning consent,’’ Robertson suggests.
Alternatively, he says you could pick up the corner site — for sale by deadline treaty, closing November 9 — as a freehold going concern.
According to the information memorandum (IM), the automatic car wash, set up in 2018 and open 24 hours a day, was profitable in its first year, way ahead of expectations.
‘‘You’re buying probably the most prominent corner site in Queenstown, when you consider the traffic that goes through there — it’s the main link between State Highway 6 and Remarkables Park [on the other side of the nearby airport runway],’’ Robertson says.
Local Colliers commercial broker James Valentine, who’s marketing the rental car yard, says it offers almost unparalleled flexibility for a new owner.
‘‘You can either land-bank it and wait for the land to appreciate in value, or develop it for an incoming tenant or yourselves.
‘‘Those rental car companies are crying out for space so to keep it as it is isn’t a bad idea.’’
Valentine notes ‘‘there’s a huge appetite for industrial’’.
What’s good, he says, is each Glenda Dr property for sale is different in its own right ‘‘so I don’t think there’s going to be too much crossover in terms of buyer pool’’.
According to Colliers’ IM, ‘‘population growth and a lack of available land will continue to drive demand through the Frankton industrial sector’’.
