Wellington millionaire developer buys distinctive former Telecom HQ tower

Thursday, 25 July 2019

Wellington property developer Eyal Aharoni has bought the former headquarters of Telecom New Zealand in central Wellington.

The tower was designed by the late and celebrated architect Ian Athfield.

The purchase of the 14-storey tower on Manners Street for an undisclosed sum from Australian owners Talavera Property Group will add to his company, Primeproperty Group's, already extensive portfolio.

The post-modernist style, pale green-tiled building was built in 1988 for Telecom and was occupied by New Zealand's largest telecommunications company in its heyday, followed by Inland Revenue and then global telecommunications equipment company Alcatel Lucent.

It was designed by the late and celebrated architect Ian Athfield.

Eyal Aharoni has built a property portfolio which includes 37 commercial buildings, five hotels, 180,000 square metres of industrial estates, a 1800 bay carparking operation and several green field residential developments.

* Top CBD Tower set to fetch $30m

* New tenants fill void in Manners Street**

The top CBD tower was put up for sale by Talavera in 2012 but the property company did not sell it then. At the time it was estimated the building would sell for about $30 million.

The refurbished 1970s office block, Aorangi House, in Molesworth St, Wellington has been recognised by the World Green Building Council for sustainable design and performance.

Aharoni, a former Israeli army major, has built the Primeproperty Group over 30 years since his arrival in New Zealand in 1988 to complete a masters degree in geophysics at Victoria University, according to an NBR Rich list profile in 2016.

Primeproperty owns and operates commercial office, car parking, industrial and retail properties as well as hotels and residential developments.

Its investments are primarily in Wellington CBD, with a small number in Hamilton, Tauranga and the Coromandel Peninsula.

The Manners Street tower is largely vacant and ready for redevelopment. It sits on 1568 square metres of land and has net lettable area of almost 10,500sqm. It includes ground level retail of eight shops and five apartments with separate access and 33 car parks.

The former headquarters of Telecom New Zealand has been sold to Wellington millionaire Eyal Aharoni for an undisclosed sum.

Aharoni has other Wellington property purchases requiring substantial redevelopment.

He bought the earthquake-prone 192-bed Amora Hotel in central Wellington in 2018 for an undisclosed sum and Deloitte House in Brandon Street for $10.2m from Precinct Properties.

Aharoni said he was in the early stages of planning for the Manners Street building so there was not much to say at present.

Primeproperty Group's website said its portfolio includes 37 commercial buildings, five hotels, 180,000sqm of industrial estates, a 1800 bay carparking operation and several green field residential developments.

Marketing the tower, Colliers International, Wellington, managing director, Richard Findlay, said there had been strong interest in the building from investors who were interested in redevelopments.

Aharoni bought the vacant and earthquake-prone 192-room Amora Hotel in 2018 for an undisclosed sum.

It had received competitive bids with the building sold to the highest bidder.

Wellington had record low office vacancy at 6.2 per cent across the city and that had been pushing up rents, Colliers said.

The office market was undergoing a transformation to better quality, seismically-resilient new buildings or major investment in existing stock to strengthen and raise the quality.

Engineering plans showed the Manners Street building could be strengthened to 100 per cent of the New Building Standard (NBS).

The building was in the Central Area zone in the Wellington City Council's District Plan allowing a wide range of activities including leisure, high-density residential, tourist, cultural, community and civic activities.