Culum Manson of Mansons TCLM at Fifty Albert. Photo / Alex Burton
Culum Manson of Mansons TCLM at Fifty Albert. Photo / Alex Burton
New Zealand’s largest privately owned commercial developer has topped off the country’s most expensive office block, the 12-level $650 million Fifty Albert to be sold to a multi-billion dollar fund, PAG of Asia, which has bought three other buildings from the same developer.
Culum Manson of Mansons TCLM said theroof was now going on Fifty Albert, new offices for Spark, Milford Asset Management and other tenants.
He showed the Herald through the new building between Swanson St and Wyndham St, telling how demand was still high.
“The corporate occupier in Auckland has really gone through a metamorphosis and change in the last few years. We’re still seeing it now,” Manson said.
“The demand is still out there for tenants that are languishing in old buildings or the fitouts have just gone stale and the people who work in the businesses are over the old buildings and the work-from-home thing is not working any more for businesses.
On level 12 of Fifty Albert. Culum Manson of Mansons TCLM. Photo / Alex Burton
“So they’re having to make a change physically into new office buildings to help encourage people back into the business and back into the office.”
That demand is what filled the new building, with almost 30,000sq m of space to be occupied, 100 per cent full now and nine months to completion, Manson added.
Around 3000 people will work in the building with 2300sq m floor plates. Fifty Albert is due to be completed towards the end of this year.
The site had until 2001 been owned by the business which later became NZME in a block the New Zealand Herald had occupied for 152 years.
Plans show how Spark's new building could look when it makes the shift to Fifty Albert.
A double-height entrance foyer and a cafe are off the grand main Albert St entrance. A conference centre for up to 250 people faces the Mills Lane side, with 210 car parks tucked into the sloping site on five levels.
Official records show Mansons has already struck a deal to sell the building.
How the foyer of Fifty Albert is planned to look once completed.
The Overseas Investment Office [OIO] granted consent for CC Helios Trust Pte to buy 46-56 Albert St, a deal needing state clearance due to it involving significant business assets and needing a national interest assessment.
The OIO decision showed the property vendor as Kiwi-owned Mansons (Mills Lane) with CC Helios Trust Pte established as a special-purpose vehicle to buy and hold the property.
CC Helios is managed under PAG’s real estate strategy and ultimately owned by passive institutional investors, the OIO said. The business is 34 per cent Singaporean, 31 per cent American, 13 per cent Canadian, 9 per cent Swiss and the rest in various hands, the OIO said.
Work when Fifty Albert was at the lower levels. Photo / Dean Purcell
The sale price was withheld in the OIO decision, under the Official Information Act.
“The vendor is currently constructing a commercial building on the property. The applicant intends to acquire the property once the building has been completed. The OIO is satisfied that the investor test has been met,” the decision of May 18, 2022, said.
Fifty Albert is the fourth Mansons building that PAG has bought, the Asian fund spending around $1.3b here since late last decade.
Those purchases are:
AA Insurance Building, 46 Sale St, western precinct;
MC building, 136 Fanshawe St, also leased to 2degrees, Lion and Fidelity Life;
Fifty Albert, leased to Spark, Milford Asset Management and others.
In 2019, PAG Group’s CC Artemis Trust of Asia won OIO consent to buy a building from Mansons Fanshawe for $329.9m. PAG bought 136 Fanshawe St, the building leased to MC, Fidelity Life, 2degrees, Tower and Lion New Zealand.
PAG already has a big presence in New Zealand after NZX-listed Precinct Properties struck a deal with it. The Herald reported last year how Precinct had agreed on a new investment partnership with the Asian fund.
That partnership bought 40 and 44 Bowen St, Wellington.
Fifty Albert:
Quarter-hectare floor plates of 2300sq m;
Around 3000 people to work on 12 office floors;
637sq m ground-floor retail;
210 car parks in five levels sleeved into the sloping site;
Albert St main reception with 250-seat conference room;
Mills Lane frontage and entranceways;
Ten 1800kg lifts to run at 3.5m/second and one goods lift;
3m internal stud heights;
Targeting 6-star green rating;
Due to be completed at the end of this year.
Anne Gibson has been the Herald’s property editor for 24 years, has won many awards, written books and covered property extensively here and overseas.
