CIVIC CENTRE LEASES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIV, Issue 19738, 10 September 1927, Page 10

CIVIC CENTRE LEASES.

AUCTION IN NOVEMBER.

SIXTEEN SECTIONS OFFERED

The lease of 16 sections on the Civic Centra site will be offered at auction on November 2, in accordance with the recent decision of the City Council. Nine sections in the block at the corner of Queen Street and Wellesley Street West will first be offered in one lot. If not taken up as a whole, five of them, with frontages to Queen, Wellesley and Fergusson Streets, will be offered together, and subsequent lots will be offered separately, or as may be arranged, subject to the conditions of auction. The sections in this block vary in area from 12.5 perches to 20.1 perches. In the block containing tho buildings of the Kaiupoi Woollen Company, Limited, and Northern Automobiles, Limited, four sections, varying from 13.5 to 18 perches will be offered, two sections of 8.6 and 15.2 perches in the Dominion Motors block will be available, and a section of 33 perches in a fourth block with frontages to Grey Avenue and Myers and Fergusson Streets completes the lots to be offered. The provisions of the lease stipulate that tho lessee must, within two years of the commencement of the term, commence the erection of a building on the property. In order to ensure that the buildings on the subdivision will form an harmonious and well-proportioned block, the design and materials of the facade, the height of floors, and incidental architectural details must be approved by the lessor. Buildings on the block at the corner of Queen and Wellesley Streets and on tho one section in the fourth block must be carried to a height of 55ft. within tho first three years, and to the maximum height of 102 ft. permitted by the lease before the end of the eleventh year. Interest in the auction is not likely to be confined to New Zealand, as inquiries have'already been received from Australia. The auction constitutes tho largest sale in recent years of any important city property, and is unique in that it involves land in the centre of the largest city in Now Zealand. Freehold values in tlie vicinity hava advanced notably in recent years. Land in the samp neighbourhood sold at about £2OO a foot a few years apo, but recent sales have been made at £4OO to £ll2B a foot. It is difficult to make comparisons on a leasehold basis owing to the fact that the forthcoming auction provides the only recent instance of the offer of leases in the vicinity