IAG House ready for a new name

The owner of a Auckland Queen St office block is confident of finding new tenants.

Rob Lang, chief executive of AMP NZ Office Trust's manager, said his organisation was negotiating with several of parties over floors in IAG House on the corner of Wyndham and Queen Sts.

But he questioned why businesses wanted to leave the CBD and move towards the Viaduct Harbour.

Tenants are leaving six floors of the tower and shifting towards the waterfront to the new NZI Centre on the old Seamart site. NZI, IAG and State staff are all gradually shifting from the CBD into the new purpose-built premises.

Lang said IAG had naming rights on the Queen St block and these expired after the tenant shifted into the new glass-clad block on the corner of Fanshawe St and Market Place. Naming rights rarely became available in the CBD on big blocks.

The lower-levels of IAG House would be refitted and upgraded after the tenant left. He also questioned why tenants wanted to move to the fringe of the CBD, saying many developments which had risen this decade in the Viaduct area would never have been built in today's tougher economic climate.

The trust had examined properties on the fringes, Lang said, but he was comfortable with the portfolio of centrally located Auckland buildings.