Telecom's new $280 million headquarters ahead of schedule

Mansons TCLM has provided the cash and expertise for the building. Photo / Steven McNicholl

Cladding is going on Telecom's new $280 million international headquarters on the fringe of Auckland's CBD.

Gary Young, Mansons TCLM construction manager, said the job was about a month ahead of schedule.

Mansons is developer, builder, funder and owner and said the site was the single biggest city office building platform in New Zealand.

Four separate buildings have risen, overlooking Vodafone's glass-clad New Zealand headquarters below on Fanshawe St.

The buildings have more than 30,000sq m of floor space. The headquarters are on a 7800sq m site bound by Victoria St West, Dock St and Harding St. More 2500 Telecom staff will move in next year, including chief executive Paul Reynolds.

Young said a commercial interior fit-out business had been working on the buildings, which would be ready to be occupied before November next year.

Air bridges and open walkways have been finished and will link the buildings.

"These open the site up and give a whole new dimension to it," Young said.

"Now, you get to see the entire concept, how it all fits together and how buildings are interconnected.

"The cladding is going on now and programmed to be finished by Christmas but we still have the atrium to go. That will be finished by the end of February.

"We're tracking ahead of programme and Telecom staff will be able to move in before November but they will do that progressively," Young said.

Telecom has signed a 12-year lease on the campus which has a central glass atrium.

The name, Mansons TCLM, recognises the role played by the third generation of Mansons in the business.

"The TCLM stands for Ted and his sons Culum, Luke and Mac. Ted started the family business with his father Colin in the early 1970s. Together they grew the business and weathered the economic downturn of the late 1980s and early 1990s," the business says.

"That experience helped shape the approach to business that forms Mansons TCLM business ethos, a hands-on approach to business dealings and financial independence."