One includes the Mosgiel Woollen Mills property and the other site has a building used by Wickliffe Press for its warehousing operation.
The 6.347ha woollen mills site, which has a rateable value of $3.8 million, is being offered for sale by public tender.
The 3.63ha Wickliffe property, rateable value $2.4 million, is for sale by deadline private treaty.
Since the Mosgiel Woollen Mills closed in 2000, some of the amenity area of the original site has been developed for housing along the Factory Rd frontage. A further 979sq m site in that area is also available for sale.
The remaining freehold industrial property contains storage units with some industrial tenancies. The site is owned by Mill Park Estate Ltd, wholly owned by Taieri Property Ltd, which has Trevor and Tony Offen and Downie Stewart Trustee Ltd as its shareholders.
Taieri Investments Ltd, which lists Tony Offen as its sole shareholder, proposed the residential development along the Factory Rd frontage after buying the site following the closure of Coats Spencer Crafts yarn factory in 2000.
Stephen Cairns, the branch manager of real estate firm DTZ New Zealand (the agent for the Wickliffe site), said there were a variety of possible uses for the smaller site. Planning changes would be required for residential development, but he did not expect that would be difficult as everything around it was zoned residential.
The largest part of the building is leased to Wickliffe Press, with another section used as a dry store, leaving a small amount of vacant space.
Three or four parties had already shown interest in the block since it went on sale about a week ago.
Although his firm is not acting for the owners of the larger site, he agreed it was possible that buying might be attractive to someone.
Both sites were suited to redevelopment and both could provide income for buyers during their planning stages.
The Wickliffe block is owned by Taieri Industrial Rental Investments Ltd. Warren and Joy Leslie, of Wickliffe Press, are directors and minor shareholders in the company, with half the shares held by Geoffrey Thomas (and a company in which he is sole shareholder - Drivers Road Trust) and Tony and Rosslynn Sycamore.
Speaking from Hong Kong last night, Mr Leslie said Wickliffe Press had a long-term lease and would be continuing its warehouse operation from the site.
