Refurbished historic office space in a class of its own

A multi-tenanted shared office development in central Christchurch is for sale via CBRE, offering investors the chance to own a repurposed industrial building in a sought-after price bracket. 
 
Meticulously converted into contemporary office spaces by experienced developer Shaun Stockman in 2018, the two interconnected buildings at 36 Southwark Street house 12 separate tenancies with shared boardrooms and amenities. 
 
The property provides office space that addresses a gap in the market between shared serviced offices and individual larger office spaces.  
 
CBRE agent Bonnie Stone, who is handling the deadline private treaty sale campaign closing on Thursday 29 May, said the property is an opportunity for buyers to acquire a quality, well-tenanted investment asset located in the vibrant SALT District near the upcoming One NZ Stadium. 
 
“There is a limited amount of character office space available to purchase that has been restored to this level of quality and seismic resilience. Its excellent spread of income risk across the 12 tenancies is a further benefit, with the property displaying an excellent history of occupancy since it opened.” 
 
The office spaces are spread across two buildings originally constructed for the W.L. Brown & Co engineering workshops and foundry, which operated at the site from the 1950s until the early 2000s and was a thriving part of Christchurch’s history.  
 
The family-run business produced a range of pump equipment, fabricating pumps and related components for many local and national customers, including Hamilton Jet. It also made many other metal products for various commercial and domestic uses. 
 
The company was associated with high-profile motorbike racer Bert Munro, who spent time at the W.L. Brown workshops fine-tuning his bike before his record-setting land speed attempts in Utah in the 1960s.  
 
In 2017 a related Stockman Group entity purchased the building from the Brown family, who had already vacated the premises, and began a comprehensive 15-month project to strengthen the buildings to 100% of new building standard and convert them into contemporary office spaces. 
 
The buildings now house six studio offices on the ground floor, as well as a boardroom, kitchen, bathrooms and a popular cafe. The upper level features five loft office spaces, along with a second boardroom, kitchen and amenities.  
 
The building’s interior design incorporates its history, with art and restored manufacturing parts displayed throughout the spaces.