CITY PROPERTY SALE

Evening Post, Volume CXXIV, Issue 108, 3 November 1937, Page 11

CITY PROPERTY SALE

BIG STORE BUILDING

PURCHASE BY WOOLWORTHS

Indicative of activity. in the Wellington city property market is a transaction for something like £20,000 just completed by Woolworths (N.Z.), Ltd. A large block of land adjoining the company's Cuba Street premises has been purchased as part of its policy of extension. The acquisition of the, additional property is necessary to provide additional warehouse accommodation, • the organisation having, so far, eighteen branches to serve in centres extending from Whangarei (which opens next week) to Invercargill. In addition to the four-storeyed warehouse in Ghuznee Street (at the back of the Cuba Street retail premises) and that recently erected on land acquired from Messrs. Thomas Ballinger and Co., storage premises have had to be leased to carry the stocks required by the growth of the business. The need has now arisen to purchase further land on which to erect a large warehouse to carry reserve stocks, and the latest acquisition will provide storage space in one block of buildings for I the whole of the reserve stocks required. The properties now purchased are Messrs. Thomas Ballinger's Dixon Street block, with a frontage of 62ft Bin and a depth of 275 ft 6in, widening over the rear 18ft to 122 ft; and the rear portion of the City Council's Milk Depot, 67ft by 60ft, together with another property of the City Council, 95ft by 70ft. and having a frontage to Howes Lane. The properties purchased cover a total of 32,700 square feet, and will have access from four sides, Cuba Street, Dixon Street, Ghuznee Street, and Howes Lane. The purchases will enable the firm to provide one great building with a total area of about 100,000 square feet. The buildings at present on the newly-purchased property will be demolished and a modern warehouse, with automatic conveyors and other machinery and appliances* will be erected. _. . _,„ Mr. R. G. Talboys, 7.N.Z.1.A., of Wanganui. Woolworth's architect, will be preparing plans for the new wirehouse, which will be of two storeys. * The sale of the properties above referred to was through the agency of Mr. E. C. Hotter.