A $20 million makeover for landmark Queen Street building by new developers

Wednesday, 12 September 2018

An illustration of the new front and entrance to 246 Queen Street being redeveloped at a cost of $20 million by its owners Wilshire Group.

The landmark 246 Queen Street building in the Auckland CBD is to have a $20 million makeover.

Building owners Wilshire Group have announced the redevelopment of the historic building built by Sir Bob Kerridge and opened in July 1964.

Sales manager at Wilshire Group, Christie Wrightson, said the company planned to restore the eight-storey building to its former glory while redeveloping it to suit today's businesses, retailers and hospitality operators.

It was the first of Wilshire group's commercial redevelopments.

246 Queen Street will offer quality office space and a range of food and beverage outlets.

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246 Queen Street, Auckland, originally opened in July 1964 and was known for its fashion stores.

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Newcomer to Auckland property development, Wilshire Group is owned by Vincent Wan from Hong Kong, and Sishuo Huang and Quan Li from Auckland. It was incorporated in August 2015, according to Companies Office records.

Another Wilshire project is the large housing development, Richmond in Mt Wellington. Wilshire bought the failed Springbank residential development in 2016, renamed Richmond, and has plans to build up to 700 homes over five years on the 10 hectare site in Panama Road.

The company said Auckland CBD's 'midtown' where 246 Queen Street was located was poised for revival with the opening of the new Aotea Station, and the company intended to be a leader in that.

The redevelopment would be 250 metres from the new station which would bring people into a part of the city populated by educational and cultural facilities and services including the University of Auckland, AUT, Auckland Art Gallery, Aotea Square and the Auckland Town Hall.

Architects Fearon Hay had been commissioned to renovate the building and real estate agents CBRE would manage leasing the commercial space.

Jeff Fearon said their designs took inspiration from the history of the building as a centre of Auckland fashion.

CBRE director Matt Hockey said once the City Rail Link was completed the amount of people within 30 minutes of the CBD was expected to double and 246 Queen Street was well located to service the increased foot traffic.

The company said the redevelopment would meet the growing demand for quality office space as well as offer a range of cafes and restaurants.

Britomart Transport Centre had driven the transformation of downtown Auckland and 246 Queen Street would be an early leader in doing the same for midtown Auckland.

The first two floors of 246 Queen Street, about 1900 square metres, would be retail and food and beverage with lettings managed by Match Realty, and the upper six floors, about 6100sqm, would be commercial space.

Commercial businesses could operate as early as January 2020 and retailers could operate from from the fourth quarter of 2019, Wilshire said.

Demolition works would start later this month with construction planned to begin in October, lead by Alaska Construction.

The entire building was being revamped, Wilshire said. Most of level 1 would be demolished to give greater height to the ground floor Queen Street retail area.

Wilshire said it had no other commercial activity in the pipeline but was looking for opportunities to purchase.