BUSINESS ROMANCE.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 20708, 4 May 1929, Page 19

BUSINESS ROMANCE.

STEWART DAWSON SITES. VALUED AT £2,220,000. ALL ON THE MARKET. (From Oun Ow.v Couukspondent.) SYDNEY, April 24. Mr Stewart Dawson: regards the business site he has at the corner of Lambton quay and Willis streets, in Wellington, as one of the most valuable business.sites in .New Zealand. It is for sale—at a price.- . Mr Stewart- Dawson has. sold a great deal of property lately, and this has focussed attention on a remarkable business romance. His recent sales have returned him £1,020,000, nnd he is the owner of other business sites in important centres, the aggregate estimated worth of them being £IBO,OOO. The total estimated assessment of his properties by Mr Dawson is £2,220,000, The sale of the Ambassadors and portion of the Strand Arcade in the centre of the business portion of Sydney for £770,000 followed fairly soon after the - realisation of Mr Stewart Dawson’s Melbourne site, at the corner of Swauston aud Collins streets, for a cash price of £250,000. Bidders arc now in the field for the other properties which they believe the owner may be persuaded to sell. Mr Dawson’s remaining possessions of the kind indicated. include a block, Nos. 73 to -81 Regent street, Loudon, which is valued by the present owner at about £800,000.; Nos. 19-21 Hatton Garden, London, is assessed at approximately £150,000. In-Brisbane there is a corner block on. Queen and Edward streets which is valued at £IOO,OOO. In New Zealand lie owns the building and site on the corner of Lambton quay and .Willis street,, which he estimates to be worth £BO,OOO, and also - the corner of High and Cashel •streets,- which is reckoned to be- worth' £70,000. ; ■ “ Are you willing to : sell, all your business properties?” Mr Stewart Dawson was-asked.- —;— - : . ’

“ I’ll sell the lot,” he replied, “ provided l ean get fair value'for them. The .prices indicated, are .what _1 - regard as fair value, and already I have had some offers which come pretty-close to' the figures mentioned.” To a question why he; was selling’ his city properties, Mr Dawson replied; “Well, you see, I’m 80 years old come November next, arid 1 have been a busy man all my life-—ever since. I built, that stone fence ■ round my father’s farm in, Scotland.! The salcmf these properties does not mead that the retail jewellery businesses of Stewart Dawson will come -to d sudden stop. They will go on,'l suppose, for some time yet, For these properties, ! don’t-jnind telling you, I ani getting—o; asking—a lot more than I paid for them. .This block”—he was speaking ju a room adjoining the Ambassadors, in Sydney- “ brought mo something like two and' a-balf- times what it cost me. The site in Melbourne, which I sold last Novem-ber-for £2150,000’ and received spot cashier the full amount of it, showed me a substantial .gain. ■ Yet I have heard'that since I sold jt to the M.U.T.0.0'.F. another property nearby has, changed hands at a higher price per foot. For a temporary lease of the corner shop the new owners arc getting, I believe, £6O a Week rent, ■ ' ■ .

“The willingness’.of- buyers 'to pay such high prices as I have received for the two .properties which I . have sold recently are evidence, in my opinidh',- of my judgment, in selecting central shop sites in the, principal centres for my business purposes. The growth of the cities has enhanced the values,- and not, any effort on my part, except, perhaps, a little foresight. ; I admit, that the jewellery trade is hot what it was some years ago—before the outbreak of the wap—but as long as there are love, courtship, and marriage, and all their incidental arrangements, jewellery .will bo. wanted by the people.” Mr Dawson left Sydney yesterday for London. He null probably ;be absent from Australia for some time. • . .