KEY POINTS:
OfficeMax, one of the top three global office products companies, is moving to new $33 million New Zealand distribution centre and office headquarters in the Highbrook Business Park at East Tamaki next year.
New York Stock Exchange listed OfficeMax is moving from three Auckland sites to a purpose-built 15,000 sq m distribution centre and 4500 sq m of office space at Highbrook Development's Highbrook Business Park.
The company has taken a 12-year lease over the property to house its 400 plus staff, now spread across properties at St Lukes, Mt Wellington and East Tamaki.
OfficeMax has been in New Zealand for more than three decades, in various guises including Whitcoulls Office Products, Blue Star Office Products and Boise Office Solutions. OfficeMax was bought by Boise and the company's name changed to OfficeMax in 2003.
OfficeMax has a market capitalisation of about US$3 billion, yearly sales of US$8 billion, 25,000 products and a range of business services. The company employs 41,000 people throughout Australia, Canada, the US and Mexico, including 860 in New Zealand.
Kevin Obern, OfficeMax's New Zealand managing director, says moving to a new single site gives the company room for expansion, efficiency and improved communication.
Colliers International industrial brokers Andrew Hooper and Charles Cooper spent more than two years working with a steering committee of four OfficeMax executives in a rigorous search for new premises to provide a superior working environment for staff on a cost-neutral basis.
They sent a detailed needs analysis questionnaire to OfficeMax staff, and the responses were used to form a brief that outlined OfficeMax's property requirements for developers and landlords interested in providing premises to suit. Over four weeks, Colliers International received 13 property proposals, carried out site inspections with the steering committee and short-listed two properties.
Hooper says the needs analysis and planning work gave him and Cooper a detailed understanding of OfficeMax's business. There were few options in Auckland to secure the large site needed for future growth.
Obern says the company wanted a dramatic improvement in the workspace for staff and a building that would fit the company's strong environmental stance.
"OfficeMax does a lot of business with corporates and government clients who expect a global company to behave in a sustainable way. When we go to tender we buy based on a number of factors, including a company's environmental status, and we also sell on our efforts in this regard.
"Any building we earmarked had to support the company's move towards attaining the Enviromark Gold standard, a certification recognising the way a company behaves and the processes it uses to avoid environmental damage. OfficeMax has already introduced a programme at one of its Auckland buildings that saves more than 20 per cent in energy costs."
Large organisations, such as OfficeMax, are more likely than smaller companies to be conscious of reducing energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions and to have a process for evaluating the environmental performance of a building, says Cooper.
"Industrial tenant demand for green buildings may still be in its infancy, but it is growing and likely to become significant in the next three years. The biggest change in their building requirements over the next three to five years will be premises with good environmental performance.
"As leading companies set new benchmarks for environmental performance in the workplace, these will establish precedents for standards of performance in the market.
"Building services, amenities and environmental performance will be the key differentiating factors for building owners," says Cooper.
Highbrook Business Park was the company's preferred location and Colliers International entered a period of exclusive negotiation with Highbrook Development to achieve a deal that suited both parties.
"We see Highbrook as the best possible site. The outlook across the river and green space gives us the chance to provide a dramatic improvement in the working environment for staff," says Obern. "In every respect its better than any of our current Auckland premises."
OfficeMax's new building is designed to meet the New Zealand Green Building Councils four star guidelines, although there are no official ratings for industrial buildings. Goodman project manager Andrew Lamb says the company has applied the commercial office green star guidelines to the office and used the same principles across the warehouse.
Architect Jeremy Craig of Ignite has designed the office building on a reasonably shallow, narrow and long floorplate to take advantage of natural light that comes through an eight metre wide by 50 m long full height atrium. Solar shading is also used extensively on the exterior.
The office portal has been carried across so it locks over and becomes a continuation of the warehouse. Natural materials have been used across the building, including polished concrete, plywood and steel.
People are "circulated" within the building by a bridge in the atrium on to which the staircases land. The lift is adjacent to the warehouse requiring disembarking passengers to walk across the bridge.
"It is a subtle way of encouraging physical activity by using the stairs, reducing the energy used in operating a lift and benefiting individual fitness," says Craig.
OfficeMax has included warehousing nearly double the size of its current operations and has built in room for expansion. "Our main warehouse at Reliable Way, Mt Wellington is stretched to capacity with little room for growth," says Obern.
The distribution centre layout is based on a standard module that has been carried through to the office to minimise construction wastage. The warehouse has skylights across the space to minimise the use of artificial low energy lighting and the space is naturally ventilated.
A bigger distribution centre comes at the right time.
Obern says the company has hit a strong growth phase this year coming predominantly from its cafe, hygiene and packaging products. "We haven't seen this type of growth for the past five years and broadening our product offering from the standard office range is driving it."
