Firm out to track down hot doughnut shop spots

By ANNE GIBSON

Finding premises for 20 to 30 new Dunkin' Donuts outlets throughout Auckland is just one of the jobs for a new property firm.

Grafton Rd-headquartered Lanterra combines experience from the construction industry with a real estate consulting business.

Former Mainzeal boss John Whitehead has joined Stephen Gubb of consultancy Grafton Group to form Lanterra, which will do tenancy advocacy work and a broad range of property consultancy. One of Mr Gubb's main jobs before this was working on the new Ascot private hospital at Ellerslie, while Mr Whitehead had Anglesea Associates.

Also merged into Lanterra are Geoff Graham's Quro Property and Geoff Graham and Associates, formerly associated with Lion Nathan and its property spinoff Mace Corporation.

Mr Gubb said the new firm's work would include finding a network of shops for the American doughnut business and the client - doughnut franchise holder Cafe Concepts - which would initially set up in Auckland over three to five years but aimed to expand throughout the country.

Already, Cafe Concepts has opened Dunkin' Donuts at malls in Manukau, Glenfield and Henderson and will soon open at The Hub at Botany Downs and the mall at Pakuranga.

As well as the doughnut business, Lanterra is involved with shifting a division of Unilever into Symphony Group's new Grafton offices, as well as divesting Unilever's commitments on other properties.

Lanterra is working for part of Philips New Zealand and looking to shift it from its St Lukes offices, Mr Gubb said.

Lanterra is working for the Eftpos service company Electronic Transaction Services, which is in the ANZ Centre on Albert St.

"But they are looking to move out of there and reposition possibly into the CBD or fringe CBD," Mr Gubb said.

Having a new laboratory built for Watercare Services at Mangere was another job which Lanterra was involved in, Mr Gubb said.