PROPERTY VALUE

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 23145, 17 September 1938, Page 23

PROPERTY VALUE

WEE STATION SITE PITT STREET AREA ■ OWNER'S CLAIM OF £11,500 EVIDENCE OF EXPERTS Ail Assessment Court, presided over by Mr. Justice Fair, yesterday continued tilt- hearing of the claim by Joseph Zambucca, manufacturer, lor £'11,500, against the Auckland Metropolitan Fire Board, for land taken in Pitt Street as part of the site lor the new central lire station. Associated with His Honor were the Hon. J. Alexj nndor, M.L.C., assessor for the claimant, and Mr. W. H. Limn, assessor for the Fire Hoard. Mr. V. 15. Meredith appeared for the claimant and Mr. North for the Fire Hoard. The total olfer of the board for the area of just under a quarter of an acre, with two shops on it, was £5120. Upper Queen Stteet Land Continuing his evidence for the suppliant, Percy James Crump, land valuer, said the site for the Metropole Cabaret in Upper Queen Street had been bought lor about f>IO a loot. Witness had been given the figure of £2200 as the cost of the excavation and retaining walls and that was approximately £lB a foot. A. F. Frater, land valuer, placed a value of £BO a foot or £7(JM.'i on the claimant's section. It was near tho | centre of the city, a good-sized area, and fronted the level part of Pitt Street. In cross-examination, witness said he considered that tho value of the land added to the value of'the buildings on it gfivo the capital value of a j property. A. G. Grinter, builder and contractor, said ho valued tho two shops on the property standing ready for demolition at £ISOB. The two shops were similarly valued by C. P. Hine, building contractor, at £1590. Called for the respondent board, 1). B. Patterson, architect, said he valued the two houses at £lllO. A Street's Reputation In answer to Mr. Meredith, witness admitted that the reputation of Grey's Avenue had improved recently. Ho did not know whether Myers Park had been taken over to get rid of undesirable premises. Ho thought part of the old reputation of Grey's Avenue still clung to it. The city valuer, P. F. Not ley, valued Zanibucca's frontage at £-12 a foot, and the buildings on the area at £1230, making a total of £5220. The property was purchased by Zambucca in 1920 for £3725. In 1933 the rateable value of two of the buildings was reduced by consent from £llO to £BB in each case. Another was reduced from £B2 to £OB and another from £B.'} to £72. A land agent had told him that Zambucca was willing to sell tho block for £3OOO. Offer to Claimant Banfurlv Smith, land valuer, valued the buildings at £IOOS and the land at £42 10s a foot, or £1055, making a total of £5120. That offer was made to Zambucca. In answer to Mr. Meredith witness j said he did not see what could be done ! with the property. It was in Pitt Street, but the whole of Grey's Avenue was | objectionable. ' A land valuer, Victor Clay, valued: the land at £4295, or £45 a foot, and the buildings on it at £llOO, making a total of £5395 for tho property. He did not think the area suitable for flats. Sales that had taken place in i the neighbourhood would indicate that j the price of £45 was a fair one. The witness was still under crossexamination by Mr. Meredith when the I Court adjourned until Monday morning.