Plenty at Steak: Food Retail Premises for Sale

The land and building housing the Waikato’s foremost vertically-integrated South African delicatessen meat and specialist foods outlet – as well as a stylish inner-city apartment above the premises – have been placed on the market for sale.

The Hamilton premises in the central city fringe suburb of Frankton is home to the well-established South African speciality foods retailer known as The Lekker Shop. Lekker is the Afrikaans word for ‘tasty’ or ‘great’. The store is well patronised seven days a week by South Africans coming from across the Greater Waikato region to stock up on their grocery needs from ‘back home’.

The Lekker Shop also manufacturers its own authentic South African meat products – such as the famous cured meat snack known as biltong, or the hearty South African BBQ sausage known as boerewors, as well as staple grilling cuts of beef, pork and chicken much loved by South Africans… and indeed thousands of Kiwis who have a taste for South African flavours.

The property comprises a 575-square metre open-plan retail outlet and ancillary administrative office space, along with Ministry of Agriculture approved butchery and meat processing warehouse amenities, sitting on some 1,019-square metres of flat rectangular-shaped freehold land zoned for industrial use under the Hamilton City Council plan. The Frankton meat processing plant and warehousing operations also service The Lekker Shop’s other retail outlet in the North Hamilton suburb of Rototuna.

Above the ground-floor shop and food manufacturing portion of the Frankton building is a premium-grade stylish large modern apartment with an open-plan kitchen/dining room/ lounge space, as well as bedrooms, bathroom, and laundry amenities. The rear of the property has been tastefully converted into a totally private fenced-in courtyard space and children’s playground surrounded by landscaped gardens – giving access to the warehouse’s three roller doors.

The apartment is tenanted by The Lekker Shop’s operators and wider family, and is included in the overall lease. With on-site sealed parking for 11 vehicles, the property straddles State Highway 1C Kahikatea Drive and Grasslands Place – just a few blocks away from Hamilton Lake.

Located in Hamilton’s CBD-fringe industrial and commercial precinct of Frankton, the freehold block and building at 1 Grasslands Place is now being marketed for sale by auction on June 25 through Bayleys Hamilton. Salespeople Rebecca Bruce and Jordan Metcalfe said the property fully met the tenant’s specific requirements for operating a vertically-integrated business on a high-profile corner address allowing for multiple building branding and billboard signage…all clearly visible at street level.

“The totally fit-for-purpose venue’s substantial open plan retail floor space enables the full gamut of South Africa foods and meats to be on show in a mini-supermarket

shelving and aisle format. Meanwhile, an adjoining wholly enclosed food manufacturing plant accommodates the business’s butchery infrastructure with large commercial grade walk-in chiller units for maximum efficiency, while the high stud clear-span warehouse is used for Lekker Shop’s dry goods storage,” said Bruce.

“On-going building improvements at 1 Grasslands Place over the past couple of years have not only underpinned The Lekker Shop’s continual customer growth based on return visits, but also simultaneously improved the visual presentation of the premises by increasing the retail floor space, and allowing for more food manufacturing equipment to be installed to keep up with customer demand.

“Having the residential component above the business activities is an added benefit for the tenants, who enjoy living close to the central city as a family in a comfortable and very stylish dwelling including a balcony deck for entertaining, and a safe play area for their children.”

The Lekker Shop is on a current lease through to 2028 at its Frankton location, with two further six-year rights of renewal, generating annual rent rental of $107,940 plus GST and outgoings. Market rent reviews are scheduled bi-annually, with the next review being undertaken in September this year.

Metcalfe said that from an investment perspective, 1 Grasslands Place met all the criteria a strong commercial real estate opportunity demanded – being a modern highly functional multi-purpose building in a good location, accommodating a reputable and prosperous tenant on long lease terms with regular rent reviews.