Graeme Hart snares 2023 biggest leasing deal: $100m Wiri warehouse to Synlait

A company controlled by New Zealand’s richest man has completed the year’s biggest lease of a new Auckland building worth $100 million.

NZX-listed Synlait Milk leases a huge new Wiri warehouse
and the office building of billionaire Graeme Hart for his new Southeast Asian factory export business.

A spokeswoman for Synlait confirmed the company has leased an adjoining warehouse and offices at 9 Jerry Green St, Wiri, with on-site car parking.

The property has 18,000sqm of storage space, 122 on-site car parks and plenty of room to turn trucks so containers can be packed and products hauled in and out of the huge buildings, which have a wide open space inside , but with five layers of advanced blocks.

But Synlait won’t use the entire building at once. The spokeswoman said it had subleased a “substantial portion” of the leased space and planned to expand over time.

New ventures are considered a major diversification of business.

CBRE’s Paul Steele leased the Hart Building to Synlait in a transaction he completed alone. He could not discuss it, saying he was bound by confidentiality.

The warehouse contract, the largest lease deal in 2023, is expected to net Hart’s company about $5 million a year in rent, other agents said, but could not confirm those details directly with Hart, who rarely deals with the media. Fernbrook’s general manager, Alistair White, also cannot speak.

But Hart’s deal has the industrial property industry buzzing, watching him achieve so much and progress to green building standards.

Property records show Fernbrook Property (JG), part of Hart’s Rank Group, owns 9 Jerry Green St.

Haydn & Rollett won the construction contract for the warehouse, which has a 16.5m column at its highest point.

“The location also has the advantage of its proximity to the Auckland Inland Port and the Auckland International Airport precinct,” the lease ad said.

JG1 is a 7000sqm warehouse with 50 car parks, a 1120sqm corridor and 400sqm offices. According to Fernbrook’s website, JG2 is an 11,000sqm warehouse with 72 external car parks, a 4142sqm yard, 2155sqm canopy and 500sqm of offices.

Additionally, Fernbrook is developing another double warehouse site at 90 Pavilion Dr, Airport Oaks, Māngere.

All four buildings feature extensive on-site parking, corridor areas and office space that tenants require to run efficient warehouse/logistics operations. The properties are designed to facilitate truck in and out and the good traffic flow needed to move heavy loads.

Synlait expects to truck the product from 9 Jerry Green St to the port facility for export in containers to Southeast Asia.

The exact plant-based products it will stock at Wiri are still unknown: for the lactose-intolerant market, it could be soy milk or oat milk…nobody says yet.

Hart has made considerable strides in the past few months, turning his attention to his home city, which some observers see as “lockdown projects” that closed our borders at the height of the pandemic. hatched from time to time, and people were unable to travel.

Hart’s eyes must have been drawn to the rapidly expanding industrial or logistics/warehouse construction industries.

Aerial images show the size and extent of the new warehouse site.

Opposite 90 Pavilion Dr, a highly sought after location near Auckland Airport, two other new buildings also by Haydn & Rollett, Green Star 5 rated, 36 car parks, fully watered, high studs with high spec floors and offices span international warehouse space.

The buildings, on land on the edge of the Villa Maria estate, were sold by receivers after the financial failure of a business founded by Sir George Fistonich. Hart’s buildings are PD1 with an area of ​​8290m2 and an office area of ​​420m2 and PD2 with an area of ​​5200m2 and an office area of ​​317m2.

A third project is in progress. The 12,340-square-metre warehouse on Cryers Rd will not be available for lease until the middle of next year.

The Fernbrook real estate development business that built the warehouses has its own website — an unusual move for a Hart business.

“Fernbrook is a real estate company wholly owned by the New Zealand family investment company Rank Group. Fernbrook’s focus is on developing and managing new generation industrial properties. As well as developing buildings to their own high specifications, Fernbrook also designs and builds developments,” the website explained.

Real estate specialist CB Richard Ellis released a report late last year showing that vacancy rates in the industrial sector “remained below 1 per cent”. This compares to a 16 per cent vacancy rate for non-CBD offices and 8 per cent for CBD offices.

JLL’s Q4 2022 Industrial Market Snapshot shows the winner of Hart’s business picks.

“Rents in South Auckland’s prime industrial area rose by 5.6% or $10/sqm and resale rents rose by 3.5% or $5/sqm. The The natural competitiveness of the industry will continue to drive the performance of industrial assets into 2023,” JLL predicts.