KEY POINTS:
Ten floors of office space are now being offered for rent in the 20-level BNZ tower under construction in the Auckland CBD.
Colliers International leasing director Rob Bird and broker Paul Dyson, who have the exclusive agency to lease the ten 1066 sq m floors in the tower at 80 Queen St, say the new building "will set a benchmark for premium grade contemporary commercial space".
The BNZ has leased the rest of the building's office space comprising 11,500 sq m spread over seven floors in the podium and some of the retail space for a bank branch at ground level.
The Multiplex $240 million, 26,000 sq m tower, has been designed to meet a five-star green rating and is one of only a few buildings nationwide being assessed under the New Zealand Green Building Council's pilot scheme.
Peter Wall, Multiplex New Zealand managing director, says he is confident it will meet the stringent criteria for a five-star rating.
The building is under construction at the CBDs only island site located between Queen St, Shortland St, Fort St and Jean Batten Place. Tenants will be able to move in at the end of 2009.
"This is outstanding CBD space in the heart of the serious business district coming on stream at a time when demand exceeds supply," says Dyson. "It is at the centre of the city's law, insurance and head office hub and will anchor the junction of Auckland's two foremost commercial avenues."
Already Dyson and Bird have had unsolicited inquiries from several tenants.
The development has had its share of ups and downs. The BNZ bought the Jean Batten Departmental Building and 80 Queen St sites in the 1990s for a new head office and in 2003 entered into a joint venture with Multiplex.
Heritage issues over the Jean Batten Building surfaced shortly after. Intense negotiations with the Auckland City Council and Historic Places Trust resulted in Multiplex, BNZ, the council and the trust agreeing to a heritage covenant that will be registered on the title in perpetuity.
Subsequently, resource consent for the new building was granted to Multiplex, which by then had become the owner, developer, builder and landlord of 80 Queen St.
The property is Multiplex's first fully integrated project in New Zealand. Multiplex is a listed Australian company under a $A4.2 billion cash bid from Canadian private equity player Brookfield Asset Management. Wall says the Brookfield offer will have no effect on the leasing of 80 Queen St.
"This project has had tremendous prominence within the company," says Wall. "We are rolling out our integrated model across Australia and will use it on other New Zealand projects as it utilises the combined skills of the group in full. Tenants like the fact we are a one-stop shop. We manage everything from start to finish."
The Warren & Mahoney and Australian-based Woods Bagot-designed building that evolved over two years is a combination of both new construction and old, preserving substantially the heritage features of the Jean Batten Building.
Retaining the heritage part of the building involves the existing doorways and windows and salvaging some of the features, such as the foyer materials, doors and windows and returning them to their places.
There will be a recess between the old and the new parts of the tower. Above the podium the tower will be stepped in. "It creates clear separation while marrying the two together," says Wall.
The large podium floors on the lower levels incorporate the old space within the retained Jean Batten Building and the ceilings are being given special treatment by Jasmax, BNZ's fitout consultants, to integrate the old with the new. In the tower floors for lease the ceiling heights will be 2.9 metres, 200mm higher than most other premium grade buildings.
The building is just short of maximising the permitted 13 to 1 floor area, with 22,000 sq m of net lettable area, including plant rooms and four basement parking levels providing 10 car parks per floor for office tenants and ground level retail on all four road frontages. The Jean Batten Place and Shortland retail tenancies are envisaged as becoming a natural extension of the adjoining popular and boutique High St retail precinct.
The foyer will incorporate extensive glazing to the street frontages and will be triple height providing a modern and attractive entry. Within the lobby will be a cafe for use by tenants and the public.
The building is "green" in all respects, says Wall. An innovative ventilated double skin facade has been designed to reduce energy consumption and is coupled with the latest mechanical systems, computer controlled smart lighting and destination lift technology. Even the rainwater that falls on the building will be collected and recycled.
Bird says the property will play an important role in the current transformation of Queen St. "The broadening of pedestrian areas and the re-configured streetscapes will reinforce the resurgence of the Auckland's only true boulevard and its importance to businesses both within the building itself and from up the hill" i.e. Shortland St. The site is also listed as prominent within the Auckland City Council's District Plan. The junction of Queen St and Shortland St marks the position of Auckland's original foreshore.
This is the historic heart of Auckland and a site sacred to Ngati Whatua and Ngati Pou. It was where they pulled their waka up and travelled up and down the Horotiu stream to their pa. Later, trader boats off-loaded cargo to feed the thriving commerce of a rapidly growing colony.
Over the past few years there has been a shift to the Viaduct by IT companies, in particular, but Dyson says 80 Queen St provides a tangible commitment to the partnership that has always existed between the city and the business elite.
"Multiplex weathered the storm to bring certainty to the finished project because it recognised 80 Queen Street as the ultimate CBD site that should be developed. It was always going to be developed. It was just a question of when and how comprehensive the project would be."
Bird says the building will provide a compelling answer to the chronic shortage of space in the core CBD, and exceptional premium grade offices.
