Computer company Compaq and real estate group Bayleys have signed leases on almost all of the fourth building in Auckland’s Viaduct Basin office park, Maritime Square.
Construction will start in about 10 days for the six-storey Compaq House. It will have 1100sqm floorplates, double the size of the first three Maritime Square buildings along Fanshawe St. It is scheduled for completion in June. Bayleys’ auction room will be on the ground floor.
The reception area will have a café style to it and later there will be another café across the square – a distinct contrast from the present auction room, which is on the 27th floor of the ASB Centre at the corner of Albert and Wellesley Sts.
Various partners in the company that bought the 18ha of Viaduct land from Ports of Auckland in March 1996 have taken strata ownership over most of the first three buildings in Maritime Square, which Mainzeal expects to complete in November. Kiwi Income then took an option over the rest of the office park land.
The original plan for the office park was to have seven low-rise buildings, five of them having six levels above a communal basement carpark and the other two rising only five levels. There was also an option to join the shorter pair for tenants wanting a bigger floorplate. The fourth building in the series along Fanshawe St will proceed when tenants are found for it.
The double building will rise six levels and the current plan for the last slot, nearest the Latitude 37 apartments, is for a two-storey building containing the café, some leased office space and possibly an office bureau. The Georgian style of the new building will be the same as its predecessors, with accouterments such as clock tower. It is a Walker Co-partnership design, and the concrete slabs for all buildings have been poured on site.
The structure has been clad in rock-faced basalt and sandstone. Kiwi, essentially a property investment trust with a diversified existing portfolio, took a punt when its offshoot, Kiwi Development Trust, decided to proceed with the Royal Sun Alliance Centre well short of the tenant commitment required to break even.
But, in moving when it did, it headed off a long lineup of high-rise development contenders. Most have since folded up their A3 plans and conceded defeat. The 37,000 sq m Royal SunAlliance Centre, between Fort and Shortland Streets, is almost 80 per cent leased and Kiwi Income’s next major new project is at Sylvia Park, where it has been designing a town centre on formal industrial storage land. That is a longer-term scheme. Meanwhile, its Maritime Square project is proceeding only on tenant demand, with short construction time frames.
The full office park will contain about 20,000 sq m. Symphony Group will also put about 3000 sq m of offices into some of the former Old City Markets building, nearer the CBD, and there is potential to create some more office space on the Viaduct’s Westhaven side. Compaq Computer NZ took over Digital last year and the customer services director, Simon Tong, says the company needed to move from its twin bases, one building on Symonds St and the other on Grafton Rd. It will take 170 staff to the waterfront, a move determined by the floorplate offered, available parking and technical detail that can be installed.
“We decided we wanted a maximum of three floors and that dramatically limited the number of existing buildings we could go to,” Tong said. “Only two or three existing buildings had the floorpaltes but they didn’t have the other things we were looking for. “There were perhaps two or three serious new contenders, but we wanted to be down in the Viaduct Basin because we’re one of the big five America’s Cup sponsors [though the initial cup defence will have ended by the time Compaq gets there].”
Compaq will take the top three floors of the new building and some basement space for its larger equipment, and Bayleys will take most of the rest. Bayleys Corporation’s general manager Ross Pickett, said the floorplate size was important because it would enable all the agency’s commercial and industrial sales staff to be on one floor. The reception area’s design includes an interactive property information service and there will be a new auction presentation format. Pickett said the auction room had been designed so it could be broken into three parts.
Parking and access were important factors for Bayleys, which will take 150 staff and agents to the new building. “The ASB has been great for us, but you have to be able to get there on weekends and people found access hard.” Compaq goes in on a six-year lease and Bayleys on a nine-year lease. Kiwi’s commercial development manager, David Johnson, says rents are above $300 sq m, variable according to floor level.