Air NZ readies for headquarters shift

The new Air New Zealand House on the corner of Fanshawe and Beaumont Sts in Auckland. Picture / Greg Bowker

About 1000 Air New Zealand staff are about to shift into their new $60 million international headquarters near Westhaven in Auckland.

The new building's interior is being fitted out and by later next month the airline will become a tenant of the $1 billion NZX-listed Macquarie Goodman Property Trust, established by New Zealand's Goodman family, whose heirs now live in Sydney.

From late September to early October, the airline will move staff from four buildings around the Auckland CBD - including five floors of AMP NZ Office Trust's Quay Tower on the corner of Customs St West and Albert St, the nearby Downtown House, a data centre on the outskirts of the CBD - and the airport.

But an airline spokeswoman said Auckland call centre staff would stay at the Smales Farm Technology Office Park at Takapuna.

Administration, sales and executive staff will be spread across the large floor plates of their new building on the corner of Fanshawe St and Beaumont St, built by Hawkins Construction.

In April last year, Macquarie bought the partially completed building from developer Trans Tasman Properties for $48.9 million.

The 15,600sq m office park comprises two connected six-level buildings, which were modified before planning approval after Auckland City's urban design panel made a series of recommendations.

The airline has signed an 11-year lease on its new headquarters, paying an initial $4.1 million rent annually but subject to three-yearly reviews which will rise as the value of the popular area increases.

Trans Tasman said last year the building would be finished by March and Macquarie chief John Dakin said practical completion was achieved that month but internal office fitout and finishing work had been going on since then.

Landlords Patrick, Craig and Greg Goodman, who established the Macquarie trust, won't be knocking on their new tenant's door.

The brothers, who grew up in Motueka near Nelson, have their own large long-range Bombardier Challenger, capable of flying them to Asia where they are expanding their business under ASX-listed Macquarie Goodman Group.

The Goodmans, who founded the baking empire which later became Goodman Fielder, were valued by this year's NBR Rich List at $1.5 billion.