Asian interest in city tower

Expressions of interest close next Wednesday, October 28 for AMI house at 63 Albert St. Photo / Supplied

The 14-level AMI House at 63 Albert St in the Auckland CBD is up for sale through John Binning, of Jones Lang LaSalle, with expressions of interest closing next Wednesday, October 28.

"We envisage AMI House will attract interest from both onshore and offshore investors with good inquiry having already been received from Singapore," Binning says.

Situated on the prominent southwestern corner of Albert and Wyndham Sts, the freehold tower block with a net lettable area of 5213sq m on its 1036sq m site, contains 52 carparks and brings in rent of $1.519 million a year.

"In addition to AMI Insurance, other high-profile quality tenants include government departments, other insurance companies, law firms, service providers, travel and shipping agencies," says Binning.

"The building benefits from being adjacent to the Auckland District Court, the city retail and banking precinct, several hotels and other primary commercial office buildings.

"AMI House is just 100m from Queen St, and Albert St is a major city connecting street running along the western boundary of the CBD."

Binning says the upper office floors have a good level of natural lighting and feature "cityscape views with the top floors having harbour and city outlooks towards the west along with panoramic CBD and harbour vistas".

The building is in the SMA1 Core Strategic Management zoning area which is the most intensive zone within Auckland City and covers the majority of the central core.

The site occupied by AMI House is a rectangular shape frontage to Albert St of 24.28m and a second frontage to Wyndham St of 42.25m. The contour of the site rises gently from the intersection of Albert St and Wyndham St to the west and has been excavated to provide a level building platform, basement carparking and ground floor retailing.

The office development fully covers the site and is oriented toward the Albert St frontage, with Wyndham St providing access to the basement and first-floor carparking areas.

Binning says the carparking is contained within the basement area incorporating a total of 29 carparks of which 12 are stacked. "The first floor carpark level comprises covered and uncovered spaces, totalling seven open, 10 stacked and seven clear covered spaces so the total carparking numbers 53 spaces."

The building was built by Fletcher Development and Construction and completed in August 1988 with a gross floor area of 8538sq m.

It has a ground-floor retail area of 506.73sq m and office space within the tower from levels four to 14.

The building's lifts, air-conditioning, security systems and foyer have all been upgraded. The lift service comprises three 920kg, 13-person ECC lifts, specified to a speed of 3m per second. Floors can also be accessed by stairs located in the service core as an alternative to the lifts.

The air-conditioning system provides a full air system with on-floor fan core units, chiller and fresh air return fans. The cost of running the air-conditioning is metered through tenant switchboard where floor by floor control for after-hours air-conditioning is obtainable for a maximum of six hours.

A Chubb ACT 2000 computerised security system controls and monitors the lifts and all building perimeter doors as well as several interior doors. Fire protection is provided by dual water supply automatic fire sprinkler system, heat detection system and selected risk areas, manual fire alarms and fire hose reels.

The retail tenancies at ground level have direct access via aluminium framed glazed doors to the exterior foyer adjacent to the main pedestrian entry to the office tower. The office tower foyer has a tiled floor with marble walls, a metal ceiling with 3.5m stud which is the same for the retail tenancies.

Amenities and conveniences are located in the service core providing male and female toilets on all levels.

The building is of reinforced concreted pier beam frame, precast concrete floor slabs, exterior cladding incorporating solar-tinted glazing and glass, aluminium joinery and moulded fibreglass sanddrills. A steel and glass veranda extends around the street frontages.