News & Updates

By now, you will all be familiar with the latest KSS acquisition in Thorndon, Wellington NZ. Acquired after a quick successful Tender and subsequent negotiation just before Christmas, it then became reality with possession on January 22nd.

Located on the main arterial road into the Wellington CBD and conveniently close to Westpac Stadium, this site has great roadside appeal and would be considered the best location in Wellington. The recent painting in the KSS colour scheme has changed the landscape dramatically, there is no doubt that Kennards has arrived in Wellington!

In the ten weeks since acquisition, we have managed to fit out a new office and box shop without any interruption to day to day business and last week saw the completion of outside painting in time for the main signage to be installed.

But that is the easy work, now the time for strategy and planning. Ultimately we believe the reasons why this site had underperformed and went into receivership, was not having the right unit mix, pricing and spending a colossal amount of money trying to convert a building into something that would only be seen in a mirage.

We have begun implementing opportunities with some unit conversions to make better use of the vacancy. Starting with the clearing out of a major part of the end building that has been left empty since the receivership with the previous operator.

This site currently has a bias for small unit sizes less than 10 metres square which can look great on paper but that is not much use if you over supply too much of one product. So we see opportunities to expand and increase the unit mix into more traditional sizes up to 24 metres square and also incorporate the Enterprise Space concept with larger warehouse unit sizing.

We have also been able to introduce Wine Storage to the Wellington centre. A climate controlled area was constructed but not finished off completely. We have created a stable environment and converted some spaces to wine unit types.

I look forward to seeing the success of this site develop over the next couple of months.

To learm more about our Wellington centre go here.