James Kirkpatrick Group plans $100m Karangahape Rd mass timber offices

James Kirkpatrick Group plans this mass timber office block for 538 Karangahape Rd. Photo / Resource consent application to Auckland Council

Family-owned Auckland property investment specialist James Kirkpatrick Group, with wealth estimated at around $800 million, is planning an 11-level $100m mass timber office block for a prominent Karangahape Rd site.

The business, founded by Kirkpatrick now in his early 90s, wants to build the block at 538 and 582 Karangahape Rd, resulting in a “regeneration of this site from a demolished, end-of-life building into a robust and legible urban structure to stand for the next 50 years”.

James Kirkpatrick Jnr, group chief executive and managing director, said the building was planned to rise 10 levels from the Karangahape Rd elevation, have around 9500sq m of office space with two levels of basement for 48 car parks and “encourage a high-quality tenant in line with some of the green initiatives required for their businesses or their clients”.

Once completed, the land and new building might be valued together at around $100m, he forecast, although resource consent has yet to be granted.

The group’s application for an 11-level building was notified, submissions closing on June 6: part will rise to 10 levels, part to 11, planners Mt Hobson Group said.

Heading towards the Ponsonby Rd intersection, along Karangahape Rd (left), showing plans for the new building (left) by James Kirkpatrick Group. Image / resource consent application

Kirkpatrick said more than 400 people could work in the offices which would have floor plates of 1000sq m. The group would target a 6 Greenstar rating for the block, using timber as an alternative to concrete which would result in lower carbon materials being used.

Businesses in the creative industry who had signed up to the Paris Agreement or the Kyoto Protocol might be interested in leasing such space, Kirkpatrick said.

“That might align with a highly visible brand in a creative environment that’s reflected to ensure their staff are in the best offices available,” he said.

The public notification said the building would require bulk-cut earthworks with associated groundwater drawdown and diversion and associated construction noise and vibration, was located on contaminated land and a contaminated land discharge consent was required.

“We see this as a valuable addition to the Auckland and K Rd streetscape. It is an opportunity to regenerate the Ponsonby end of K Rd with retail and hospitality at street level on K Rd, Gundry St and Abbey St, along with nine levels of office overhead. We hope a development of this scale being consented can alleviate some concerns in the construction industry for future works,” Kirkpatrick said.

The building would be New Zealand’s tallest mass timber commercial building with a 6 Greenstar rating, he predicted.

HomeGround is an 11-storey mass timber building for Te Tāpui Atawhai the Auckland City Mission on Hobson St.

National Business Review’s The List of wealthy families and individuals last year put James Kirkpatrick Snr’s wealth at around $800m and noted how the founder still had his name and phone number as a point of contact on the company’s website but the ownership of the business has now been divided among his five children.

The new building is planned to rise opposite Mobil Karangahape Rd.

The group commissioned Fearon Hay to design the mass timber structure with a saw-tooth roof topping the glazed block which the architects said would provide interest to the ridgeline when seen from a distance.

The block proposed for the area near the Ponsonby intersection would rise 27m tall from Karangahape Rd, 20m above Gundry St and 15m above Abbey St, with setbacks from podium levels to give visual relief.

538 Karangahape Rd (right) near the Ponsonby Rd intersection, where James Kirkpatrick Group plans the new mass timber offices. Photo / Google Street View

The building would act as a gateway, the architects said, standing at the western entrance to the Karangahape Rd precinct.

On social media, comments were made about the ethereal style of images of the proposed building: “The building has been depicted in a delicate, washed-out watercolour manner to downplay the effect of its considerable scale and bulk,” one commenter said.

Social media group, K Road Heritage, said Fearon Hay had produced “a very clever and sophisticated design and although of a large and rather dominating scale the massing of the structure and articulation of the facades is done very well. The handling of the ground floor along Karangahape Rd is rather good”.

This part of the road had fewer height controls so the creation of a tall building on this location is a much better idea in many ways, it said.

“Over the last 20 years there has been a decline in demand for office space – this was noticeable even before Covid and advent of Zoom meetings and the work from home trend,” the group said.

This meant about eight existing office blocks in the area had been converted into apartments, the group said, yet there had been few new commercial developments.

James Kirkpatrick Group plans this mass timber office block for 538 Karangahape Rd. Photo / Resource consent application

Other locals wondered about the demand for such large offices, given the award-winning modernist Ironbank office block owned by Samson Corporation at 150-154 Karangahape Rd.

Mt Hobson Group said James Kirkpatrick Group had initially applied for a three-level building on the site in 2020 but rising building costs and the National Policy Statement for Urban Design had sparked plans for the much larger structure.

“It had become increasingly apparent to the applicant that the development proposed for and authorised on the site was, due to a doubling of the likely construction costs, as well as a one-year increase in construction time frames, becoming financially marginal and thus an unsustainable development of the site. Secondly, the Government had, between October and December 2021 announced and made law, major changes to the NPS-UD via the Resource Management (Enabling Housing Supply and Other Matters) Amendment Act 2021),” Mt Hobson Group’s application said.

No resource consent decision has been made yet on whether the new building will be allowed.

Anne Gibson has been the Herald’s property editor for 24 years, written books and covered property extensively here and overseas.