Kennards July eKourier

PROPERTY

NZ FIRST PURPOSE BUILT SITE NOW OPEN Welcome to Wairau Valley, our first Purpose-Built storage centre in New Zealand. Wairau Valley is a major bulk retailing and industrial area close to the Northern Motorway in the heart of North Shore in Auckland. It is a go to destination for living north of the Harbour Bridge. The Wairau Valley site is the ninth NZ site for KSS and is a very proud Orange Beacon of Freedom!

W airau Valley site had its beginning way back at the start of 2017. Sam was successful with a property auction, on a hands-free car ride if I recall correctly. This started the journey of our first Purpose-Built project in the Auckland market. While the leases ran to expiry on the existing tenant’s, we used the time to negotiate with council for a six storey L shaped structure. Creating up to 10,000 square metres of GFA, with optimum exposure to the neighbouring northern motorway and major arterial roads within Wairau Valley. Initial construction was challenging, ground conditions required additional piling that takes time and money and can be very frustrating, adding delays to the progress of the site. Then when Covid came along, this added further delay.

However, no matter how challenging the obstacles, we made it and the finished building is well constructed. Standing proud as a Purpose-Built centre, providing exceptional Brand recognition for the business within the Auckland region. Opening on the 8th of June 2021, with our Team of Mark Montgomery who is our long time trusted go to Manager for successful openings, and new Assistant Leonie Ridling. The first week of opening was outstanding! As soon as painting started on the building and signage started going up, we experienced significant interest, with a massive pipeline waiting for opening. So much so, we had over 40 units at 450 square metres rented within the first 10 days of opening, a fantastic result and the reservation list is looking very healthy indeed!

We kept the first floor clear of fit out to see how rent up goes. We can adjust this level’s unit mix when the centres occupancy matures. There is also allowance to include Wine Storage. Look out for future updates, including progress on NZ site number 10 in Hastings! Andrew Kirkham NZ Operations Manager

6 Kennards Kourier July 2021