Queen St landmarks get a makeover

The renovation plan aims to recognise the buildings' historical value. The original building (left) and an artist's impression of the 'made-over' buildings. Photos / Supplied

Canterbury Arcade and four adjoining buildings on Queen St and High St in the Auckland CBD are being renovated by The Ranchhod Group and Sipka Holdings, who are seeking tenants for retail and office space.

The buildings are a nine-storey and a four-storey building at 166-174 Queen St; and a seven-storey and a five-storey building at 47-51 High St.

The complex incorporates the Canterbury Arcade retail walkway running between the two key city streets.

The four interconnected character buildings include the Brunswick Building and Warwick Chambers and have a combined total building area of 5688.78sq m on a site area of 1151sq m.

Variously constructed between 1906 to 1914 and refurbished in 1996, they have a 20.2m frontage to the eastern side of Queen St and a 20.33m frontage to the western side of High St.

Mahesh Ranchhod, Ranchhod's managing director, says contractors are replacing old shop windows throughout Canterbury Arcade with new and bigger shop frontages.

Shop frontages on both High St and Queen St will also be widened.

"The buildings are being painted on both the outside and inside and granite flooring is being installed in the arcade from High St through to Queen St, replacing old tile floors," Ranchhod says.

Restoration work includes the erection of granite columns on the face of the buildings on both Queen St and High St and classy new facade colours for the buildings, he says.

"In recognition of the historical value of the buildings we are exposing and restoring the original ornate plaster ceilings on all the floors within the four buildings," Ranchhod says.

"The office floors are being finished to a high class with imported granite foyers to enhance the beautiful interior character space, which is well-lit by natural light flooding in from numerous windows opening on to both Queen St and High St."

Work being done on Queen St and High St includes the erection of steel canopies with downlights and new signage for the tenants.

Cable trays are also being installed in the buildings with new lighting systems.

Ranchhod says most of the retail tenancies on Queen St, in Canterbury Arcade and on High St are already occupied, including some brand-name companies such as Hallensteins, Stirling Sports and fashion designer Kate Sylvester. Other tenants include Asian restaurants, shoe stores, a tailor, a foreign exchange centre and fashion outlets.

"One of the tenants, Pat Menzies Shoes, has been operating in the Canterbury Arcade for more than 40 years," Ranchhod says.

Many offices are likewise already occupied by a variety of professional firms including lawyers, architects, financial and translation services, jewellers and art dealers, property management and medical companies.

"Further refurbished office space will be available for lease within the buildings by the first week of March," Ranchhod says.

"A showroom has been set up on the second floors of both Queen St buildings, which are interconnected, so prospective tenants can view various colours and floor coverings.

"The showroom can be accessed by lift from Canterbury Arcade."

Ranchhod says the modernised offices have polished wooden flooring but tenants have the choice of carpet or imported granite overlay.

"A feature of the office floors is the high stud ceilings that give a sense of spaciousness and which are hard to find in modern buildings.

"The remaining office and retail spaces vary from 15sq m to 800sq m but we can tailor a package that suits each tenant's needs in terms of larger or smaller spaces."

Ranchhod says the group hopes to achieve rentals of between $200 and $400 per sq m after the renovations. "This is very competitive and under the asking rate of many comparable CBD buildings currently for lease."

The two companies are jointly doing the renovations after buying the four buildings and the Canterbury Arcade with a view to increasing their investment potential by attracting quality tenants.

"Because of their location and dual access positions, the buildings made the perfect buy with the prospect of significant upside which is hard to find on Queen St," Ranchhod says.

"For these reasons, we saw them as 'uncut diamonds' that would generate a strong return with some hard polishing."