Biggest new Auckland developments: James Kirkpatrick’s $1b project dominates – CBRE
A gigantic 6.5ha logistics warehouse in south Auckland is the largest new building rising in the city, a new study has found.
Zoltan Moricz and Roger Du of CBRE have released the latest Auckland new development pipeline report.
James Kirkpatrick Group dominates that with an under-construction, 65,000sq m building at the $1 billion estate at 352-358 Puhinui Rd.
Overall, CBRE found an active market in shops, offices and warehouse buildings.
“The active development pipeline of projects where physical work has commenced or is considered imminent across the office, retail and industrial sectors currently comprises 42 projects with some of the bigger active office and retail projects set for completion by year’s end,” the report said.
The industrial market dominates, with 27 projects in the active pipeline, followed by the office market with eight projects.
Retail has seven active projects.
The Herald has visited the James Kirkpatrick site in the winter and prepared this fact list.
352-358 Puhinui Rd
The CBRE list found Wiri, East Tāmaki and Drury have the most industrial new building development work on now.
ESR is developing a 29,000sq m building at 38-44 Dalgety Drive, Wiri.
Fisher & Paykel Healthcare and Wilson Group are developing buildings of 40,000sq m for their own use in East Tāmaki.
At Drury, Briscoes Group is developing its new owner-occupied warehouse.
In that same area, Revolution Hills-headquartered family-owned Calder Stewart is building a new distribution centre for NZ Safety Blackwoods and Langdons.
“We are also aware of some other big projects such as Waitomokia (the previous vineyard on Montgomerie Road) by Goodman,” CBRE said.
It also cited a project on Mt Richmond Rd by Argosy Property, which is developing the Mt Richmond light industrial park at the foot of Ōtāhuhu.
The Norman family have a master plan for their Prices Road estate in Wiri, which is “actively seeking tenant commitment”.
Although these projects will not be built before pre-commitment, they will ultimately add around 400,000sq m of new stock in total to the market in the medium-longer term, the report said.
Offices
Three CBD and five suburban office buildings are rising, totalling 42,000sq m.
The biggest is at 2-14 Wakefield St by PAG, which it hopes to finish by the end of this year.
“Office pre-commitment has been quiet so far this year, reflecting the broader office market sentiment,” the report said.
Most office developers will not commit to a project unless they pre-lease a reasonably large portion of their planned building, it said.
“The knock-on effect is delaying projects currently in the planning phases,” CBRE said.
Mansons TCLM’s project at 35 Graham St was in demolition phase on the clifftop above Fanshawe St.
“We understand that plans currently remain fluid around the final form and nature of the development. We expect an office component of about 20,000sq m to be completed in 2028,” CBRE said.
Retail
Mark Gunton’s New Zealand Retail Property Group is developing five new buildings at his Westgate site on the city’s northwest fringe, including a Kmart.
CBRE noted the area’s dominance.
“West Auckland has a big retail development pipeline at 30,000sq m, which will be completed by mid-2026,” the report said.
“The retail development pipeline remains patchy.”
It was characterised by a few large projects “and nothing much besides”.
Large projects include New Zealand’s first Ikea and the largest Kmart in New Zealand at Westgate.
New retail space is also being built at the Whenuapai town centre on Brigham Creek Rd.
“A few new supermarkets will be completed in the next two years across diverse locations. New World Te Atatū is being refurbished while New World Victoria Park will commence construction soon. Woolworths Onehunga will commence construction next year,” CBRE said.
Anne Gibson has been the Herald‘s property editor for 25 years, written books and covered property extensively here and overseas.