New developments are under construction or planned around Auckland’s $5.5 billion City Rail Link train stations, a new CBRE report shows.
Research head and executive director Zoltan Moricz said: “An interesting trend is the emerging development focus on midtown of the CBD, spurred by the CRL’s upcoming Te Waihorotiu Station.”
The Formery is the redevelopment of 87 Albert St and neighbouring buildings by the same business which did Alberts at 1 Albert St or the former West Plaza building, he said.
PAG is also redeveloping an older office tower at 2-14 Wakefield St, the ex-AUT building by Auckland Library across from Aotea Square.
Malaysian Resources Corporation Berhad plans a new building above the new Te Waihorotiu Station.
That development, the Symphony Centre, will encompass the redevelopment of the 13,000sq m Bledisloe House and a new mixed-use building with around 17,000sq m of office space on top of the new Te Waihorotiu train station.
That 21-level building is estimated to be a $600m project with apartments, shops and offices.
Campus-style large floor plate buildings are features of other city developments, Moricz said.
Mansons TCLM has nearly finished new 50,000sq m $650m offices at 50 Albert, leased to Spark, Milford Asset Management and others.
That same business is also developing the new $550m offices at 30 Daldy in the Wynyard Quarter on the Beaumont St corner.
Culum Manson of Mansons TCLM told the Herald in February that more than 3000 people would eventually work in those new offices with air bridges in a glassed atrium.
He was confident about leasing the 24,093sq m premises at 30 Daldy St next to Air New Zealand’s world headquarters and sought no previous publicity about this project.
Although completion is looming next year, no tenants have yet been announced.
Manson said in February he was in advanced negotiations with a number of interested parties and expected the building to be fully leased this year, well ahead of completion.
He showed progress on the site where two of the company’s five tower cranes are swinging.
Building A on the Beaumont St side is to be six levels and building B on the CBD side is to be seven levels.
Moricz said that nearer the CBD, Precinct Properties was advanced on its new 20,000sq m office block rising at 124 Halsey St: Beca’s new headquarters when it leaves Pitt St.
Scott Pritchard, Precinct chief executive, said last winter that around 1400 Beca staff would leave Pitt St for Wynyard Quayside which will be eight levels high.
Hawkins is building that for Beca and other tenants in the block fronting Halsey St. Three interconnected buildings are rising at 124 Halsey St and 117 Pakenham St.
Those three new buildings are expected to be worth around $240 million once completed, Pritchard said.
Moricz said the market was showing mixed signals which were bullish as well as bearish.
“Overall trends show an active development market with confidence from some occupiers to commit to new projects and some developers remain prepared to start projects speculatively in the industrial market.”
But others are showing greater caution given high construction costs, challenges for asset values due to higher yields and a softer economy leading to a more cautious occupier market, resulting in some developers delaying projects actively planned during the past year or two, he said.
On the industrial scene, Argosy Property has started development of 224 Neilson St where it has 5000sq m under construction but a further 12,000sq m in for building consent, Moricz noted.
In addition to its Sylvia Park shop, Ikea is also getting a new distribution centre developed in the Airport Corridor. Its 20,000sq m - Ikea is the tenant and Auckland Airport is the developer and owner of that storage building.
New or recent areas for development are gaining momentum.
Drury now has one of the largest pipelines a lot of it focused on owner-occupier developments of distribution centres including the recently announced Briscoes distribution centre of 32,000sq m in addition to stage two of the Cardinal Logistics development of 16,000sq m, with stage one of 35,000sq m completed late last year along with 14,000sq m by Freight Direct.
In the new Whenuapai industrial precinct, Property for Industry has bought a site on Spedding Rd and plans to develop around 34,000sq m of warehouse/logistics space.
Auckland Airport is developing Manawa Bay outlet centre and is due to open later this year.
The retail pipeline is focused on large format developments, Moricz said, either stand-alone stores or large format centres and neighbourhood centres in emerging locations.
These include the new Maki Centre at Westgate, an 18,000sq m large-format retail centre with committed tenants including a new Tesla showroom and further development at Whenuapai town centre to service the rapidly growing residential catchments in this neighbourhood, Moricz said.
Mark Gunton’s NZ Retail Property Group is developing a four-in-a-row quick-service restaurant offering for brands owned by NZX-listed Restaurant Brands and Tahua Partners as well as the new Tesla store.
KFC, Carls Jr., Taco Bell and Starbucks will be lined up beside each other in the new building.
Gunton is a station leaseholder, valuer, shopping centre developer, apartment builder and big game hunter. His Argyle Station has the Crown pastoral lease of northern Southland’s historic 13,777ha property at Waikaia where he runs around 50,000 animals, including 12,500 ewes, 1250 cows and 3500 red deer hinds.
The new Tesla store is going on a site north of Costco Fuel.
A new large-format Asian supermarket Foodie will open beside these new buildings, the Herald reported last September.
Anne Gibson has been the Herald’s property editor for 24 years, has won many awards, written books and covered property extensively here and overseas.
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