KEY POINTS:
Nestle New Zealand is the first office tenant to sign up for space in a $200 million mixed-use complex rapidly taking shape on the former Carlaw Park rugby league site in Parnell.
The office of the world's largest food and beverage company will relocate 150 of its Auckland staff to the Stanley St premises scheduled for completion in the second quarter of 2009.
Nestle will take a nine-year lease, with rights of renewal for a further six years, on 2850sq m of space in a 10,000sq m low-rise office complex.
The lease was negotiated by Andre Siegert and Steve Orr of Bayleys Real Estate's corporate services team.
The office complex, which is being designed to a minimum four-star Green Building Council rating, will be one of the main features of McDougall Reidy's redevelopment of the 2.9ha site which was the home ground of Auckland rugby league from the 1920s.
Nestle is taking the top floor of two adjoining buildings in the four-level office complex.
Gary Tickle, Nestle New Zealand's chief executive, says the complex's green rating and its innovative design, incorporating 1400sq m floor plates in each building which are linked by a central core, were important factors in its decision to opt for the Carlaw Park development.
"We have a very non-hierarchical structure with a number of cross-functional teams so we see it as a huge plus having everybody on one level. We'll be using the central core area as our reception," he says.
"An internationally recognised green star rating was also important to us, given Nestle's global commitment to reducing water and energy consumption as well as waste."
Tickle says that over the last five years, Nestle's operations around the world have reduced their energy consumption per tonne of product by 28 per cent and greenhouse gas emissions by 32 per cent.
John Coop, of project architects Warren & Mahoney, says some of the key environmental features of the Carlaw Park office building include passive solar design, a variable refrigerant flow air-conditioning system, energy-efficient lighting, water-efficient plumbing and selecting materials that perform well in terms of environmental sustainability.
Nestle began looking at premises options for its head office back in September 2006. Siegert says as part of the service it provided, Bayleys organised for four of Auckland's leading fit-out companies to put a proposal and presentation to Nestle's relocation committee. This resulted in the appointment at an early stage of Gaze Commercial as their interior design and fitout partner.
"It's important that a business has confidence that it is embarking on a process that gives them real choice and an independent assessment of what their accommodation options are," says Siegert.
"Gaze's involvement meant Nestle was provided with a practical assessment of the efficiency of floor plates in the buildings they were considering, how many square metres could be utilised - and in what manner - and how well the premises suited their organisational structure.
"Staying put in their existing Newmarket offices was one of the options considered, which meant their current premises could also be measured against other available alternatives.
"Often the choice of an interior design company is left until after a building has been chosen when in our opinion there are significant benefits to be gained from involving them right at the start of any investigation of new premises."
With 60 per cent of its office staff living in central Auckland or the eastern suburbs, Nestle focused its premises search on the area from Mt Wellington and the Southern Corridor office precinct to the CBD fringe. A total of 12 properties were evaluated against a range of criteria which included location, occupancy costs, environmental factors, amenities and the building itself, before a short list of four buildings was settled on.
"The Carlaw Park development ticked a lot of boxes for us and in particular it was the best-positioned site," says Maurice Gunnell, Nestle New Zealand's corporate services manager and project manager for the relocation.
Nestle has been in New Zealand since 1885. Its local head office has been located in the Parnell/Newmarket area for the past 50 years and the location is popular with staff, Gunnell says. The Carlaw-Stanley St site also has good motorway and public transport access, with a railway station planned alongside the property.
It is close to the Domain and the University of Auckland, and most of the agencies that Nestle works with are located within a 10-minute walk.
The Carlaw Park redevelopment will also incorporate some retail space, including a cafe, a Quest apartment hotel now under construction adjacent to the Nestle building and a child care centre.
A retirement village to be operated by Vision Senior Living will be built at rear of the site in the second stage of the development and is scheduled to begin later this year.
Gunnell says the serviced apartment complex which could accommodate staff and clients from other parts of New Zealand and offshore, and the planned child care centre on site were other plus points for Nestle.
Greg Reidy, a director of McDougall Reidy (formerly Willis Bond), says Auckland's exceptional summer has resulted in excellent progress being made on the development, with most of the earthworks and foundation work in Stage One having been completed.
He says rentals in the mid-$300 per sq m range for the office complex compare favourably with rentals now in excess of $500 per sq m for new buildings in the CBD.
