Britomart's The Hayman Kronfeld Building. Photo / supplied
The restoration of Britomart’s twin heritage warehouses, known as the Hayman Kronfeld Building, was named one of the New Zealand’s best projects in the last year.
That won the Property Council’s Naylor Love heritage and adaptive reuse prize.
The judges called changes “a tour de force” in heritage restoration with a sensitive refurbishment and amalgamation of the buildings previously called the Barrington Building and Old Sofrana House. Cooper and Company worked with Peddlethorp on that transformation.
Winners were announced from Auckland’s Spark Arena tonight, also naming many other buildings throughout New Zealand.
Projects which won awards tonight were assessed on economic/financial criteria (30 per cent), project vision and innovation including degree of difficulty (15 per cent), design and construction (20 per cent), owner and user satisfaction (15 per cent) and sustainability and efficiency of operation (20 per cent).
Auckland Council values each Britomart building at $12.5m, giving a combined $25m, understood to be less than the current market valuation. Jeremy Hansen of Britomart Group Management said in March an event was held to celebrate work being completed and tenants returning to the Customs St East blocks.
Construction work was by Bracewell Construction. Office and retail tenants left the buildings more than two years ago pre-pandemic.
The lifts had not functioned for years but now a new core has been installed with three glazed lifts to service floors within the two buildings.
The entrance to the buildings has been combined into one address as part of the refurbishment, Hansen said.
A new lobby with recycled brick flooring opening onto the new shared space on Galway St has also been created. The project is targeting a 5 Green Star rating from the Green Building Council.
In other awards tonight, EBOS Group’s new purpose-built healthcare logistics building at The Landing Business Park, Auckland Airport won the industrial property award.
All goods going into and out of the new 19,000sq m EBOS pharmaceutical-grade Māngere hub owned and developed by Auckland Airport are in a temperature-controlled area, judges said.
But Covid had a big effect on the project.
“As with many construction projects that were built in the past few years, site inspections were not permitted and neither the tenant, EBOS, nor the owner and developer team from Auckland International Airport were able to meet in person until near the end of construction,” the judges noted.
The property has New Zealand’s only fully environmentally enclosed yard in a full cold-chain site. All goods, whether arriving at or leaving, can be kept at precise temperatures.
The judges said energy-efficient aspects of the 4-star green hub included motion-sensor lighting, three 3000L tanks for rainwater, electric vehicle charging points, accessibility features and bike racks.
Auckland Airport submitted the entry for the project built by Macrennie Commercial Construction and designed by Eclipse Architecture.
A new Wellington child health service centre was the top winner from an economic, design, construction, sustainability and efficiency perspective. Newtown’s Te Wao Nui in the Mark Dunajtschik and Dorothy Spotswood Building next to Wellington Regional Hospital won the Rider Levett Bucknall supreme award, Warren & Mahoney civic, health and arts award and excellence and best in category.
That is the top prize from 10 categories.
Te Ara Ātea a multi-functional cultural and community centre at Rolleston, Christchurch and Te Huhi Raupō at the Taranaki Base Hospital renal unit in New Plymouth also won excellence awards in the civic, health and arts category.
Changes to the ex-West Plaza - now renamed 1 Albert St - in Auckland’s CBD won the RCP commercial office property award. Andy Evans, chief judge, said: “The team stripped back the layers added in the 1980s and 1990s, creating a design solution that adds value while celebrating the building’s true simplicity.”
The project was done in stages: base-build, interior fit-out, west extension and upper-level office refurbishments.
It had challenges. The pandemic, a fire and 18 building consents added huge complexity to that project.
Carlaw Park Student Village stage three in Parnell won the Templeton Group multi-unit residential award. The project is by Haydn & Rollett, Reidy & Co and Ergon Properties. That building was opened earlier this year and is a new $250 million 10-level block for nearly 1000 students at the Stanley St/Nicholls Lane intersection. Students had a say in its design, adding cinema rooms, gaming areas, retail, communal kitchens, music rooms, e-bike storage and study spaces.
Kim Barrett of Haydn & Rollett said Barrett said apartments were “oversubscribed which demonstrates a high level of unmet need locally and also signs that the international student numbers are coming back. This will help provide much-needed infrastructure to meet long-term accommodation requirements for both segments”.
The project was inspired by United States college accommodation, Barrett and Greg Reidy told the Herald in April.
The huge new block has a central courtyard for games like volleyball and an area for barbecues.
Adrienne Cleland, Auckland University deputy vice-chancellor and registrar, said the self-contained apartment model was common in the United States, Britain and Australia. But our young students usually stayed in traditional student halls of residence.
The building’s exterior is precast concrete cladding and contrasting surfaces including faux weathered steel and white panels. The success of the building was proven when bookings opened and demand exceeded supply. Last year, the university had 8500 applications for around 4500 beds, the judges said.
Cleland said a few weeks ago: “In New Zealand, students living on campus will typically go into a catered hall-style accommodation in their first year,” she said, citing a chronic shortage of self-contained student accommodation.
Each apartment is fully furnished so students won’t have challenges finding beds, furniture or whiteware and they can budget on a fixed weekly cost of $300/week.
“The development of this new accommodation facility is designed to provide students with a world standard education experience, which in turn helps to develop our international reputation and to ensure we remain competitive in the global market,” she says.
More private flats in the area are taken off the market as the wider area is gentrified, she said.
Reidy and Barrett formed Resident Properties three years ago, specialising in the build to rent market.
The Residences at Karamū in Christchurch won the residential award sponsored by Kāinga Ora while Whangārei Boys’ High School won the education award, sponsored by Greenstone and Colliers.
Blenheim’s Cloudy Bay Vineyards won the green building award sponsored by Resene while Queenstown’s O’Connells Mall won the retail award sponsored by Yardi. Costco Wholesale at Auckland’s Westgate won a merit award in that category.
The Hawke’s Bay Regional Aquatic Centre in Hastings won the tourism and leisure prize sponsored by Holmes Group.
Christchurch-based Evan Harris, Colliers’ national retail property consultant, won the member laureate award. He has worked in the sector for four decades, involved with the South Island’s larger malls. He began his career in the 1970s. Leonie Freeman, Property Council chief executive, said he had set a benchmark.
“Evan has shown incredible leadership during the past 40 years and his dedication and professionalism in a sector that’s experienced significant challenges in recent times continues to draw much respect from his peers,” Freeman said.
The awards are now in their 24th year and are sponsored by Rider Levett Bucknall.
Anne Gibson has been the Herald’s property editor for 23 years, having won many awards, written books and covered property extensively here and overseas.
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