The land and stylish building housing one of the busiest and ‘hippest’ licensed hospitality dining and drinking establishments in the heart of a prosperous Waikato township have been placed on the market for sale. The rectangular 306-square metre corner site in Matamata’s main street is home to Osteria Matamata which has occupied the premises since 2013 – building up a strong patronage following among locals, and as a destination for tourists staying in the town as part of their visit to nearby Hobbiton.

Osteria Matamata is a family-run business headed up by culinary brothers Marko and Nick Zoraja. The Italian-themed venue trades seven days a week running from lunches through to evening meals, serving traditional Italian fare such as pizzas, pastas, alongside seafood dishes. The Zoraja brothers also operate sister Operation Osteria Ohakune. . With a 40.23-metre frontage onto Broadway’s wide pedestrian-friendly cobbled pavement, Osteria Matamata’s premises were previously configured to sustain three separate retail entities – each with their own separate bathroom amenities – before they were unified, and the interior reformatted into its current hospitality layout.

Natural wood features prominently throughout the inside of the high-stud open-plan dining and drinking establishment – with barn-like timber flooring, wood panelled walls, and exposed steel beam and wooden slat ceilings above.

Extensive ceiling to floor windows provide Osteria’s customers with a view out onto a council-maintained shrub garden adjacent to a traffic roundabout. In warmer months, the classical eatery takes advantage of the wide pavement outside to provide al-fresco dining under a large portico wrapping around both Broadway and Arawa Street.

The freehold land and building at 59 Broadway in Matamata are being offered for sale at auction on July 10 through Bayleys Waikato. Salesperson Josh Smith said the classy interior design of the building allowed for Osteria Matamata to offer clientele several different ‘zones’ – ranging from a quiet nook on one side of the venue or a row of booth seating, through to a bustling large open plan main dining floor.

Osteria Matamata is currently on a lease at the location running through to 2027, with two further three-year rights of renewal, generating annual rental of $101,200 plus GST and outgoings. The building as a New Building Standard rating of 100 percent.

“The land and building at 59 Broadway are very much a ‘hands-off’ investment opportunity, with a modern stylish well maintained building housing an established and incredibly popular tenant on a long lease,” said Smith.

“Effectively being purpose-built when the three previous retail locations were unified into one floor space, the staff workflow between Osteria Matamata’s bar, kitchen, reception area, and customer tables is incredibly efficient – which is obviously one of the reasons why the restaurant is so popular, and has such as high ranking on on-line restaurant review sites.

“This also means that from a long-term perspective should Osteria Matamata ever leave, any new owner has the option of once again reformatting the space back into multiple individual retail or commercial tenancies.”

Broadway, which is also part of State Highway 24 linking Matamata with Tauranga, is the hub of Matamata’s well-developed retail and foodservice scene in one of the Waikato’s most prosperous towns.

Attracting locals throughout the week, nearby eating and drinking establishments along the Broadway strip include McDonalds, Redoubt Bar & Eatery, Sofra Restaurant, and Indian Tadka restaurant, adjacent to a raft of healthcare and beauty businesses, as well as multiple cafes and takeaway outlets. The address at 59 Broadway is zoned commercial under the Matamata Piako District Council plan.

“Located within the spine of Matamata’s central business district, premises on Broadway benefit from extensive free parking along the length of the road – which encourages customers to come into town. With little traffic congestion, there’s immense convenience for local residents to park right in the middle of town and do all of their shopping or head out for dinner,” Smith said.

“It’s elements like these which enable small provincial towns such as Matamata to retain their rural character and appeal. Osteria Matamata also has the benefit of being located on the corner of Arawa Street, which provides additional customer parking right outside.

”Over the past nine years several commercial buildings within Broadway have been redeveloped, modernised, or completely rebuilt from the ground up – reflecting a broad confidence from property owners in the town’s long-term economic prosperity.”

As a thriving rural services township with a population of some 7,806 residents according the 2018 census, Matamata is the second largest urban community within the Matamata-Piako District Council territorial authority. Matamata businesses derive much of their income from the dairying, equine, and cropping sectors of primary industry, while the locale’s central business district contains all the retail and household