Sir Bob Jones pays $10.11m for Lambton Quay building

Monday, 5 August 2019

Sir Bob Jones company Robt. Jones Holdings has paid $10.11 million for Civic Assurance House, his company's 18th office building in Wellington's CBD.

New Zealand property tycoon Sir Bob Jones' company Robt. Jones Holdings has paid $10.11 million for his 18th prime office building in Wellington's CBD; Civic Assurance House on Lambton Quay.

Other well-known Wellington CBD buildings owned by Robt. Jones Holdings include David Jones, Midland Chambers, Lambton Centre, Lambton House, Harbour Tower, Featherston House and The Bayleys Building.

The price paid for 52 year-old Civic Assurance House was disclosed in a monthly research report of real estate firm Colliers International.

Civic Assurance House, on Lambton Quay, was built in 1967 and was owned by Civic Financial Services, a company providing financial services to local government.

Colliers was the marketing agent for the sale of the 10-level building built in 1967. The sale was announced in early July.

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Lambton House is one of Sir Bob's other office buildings in central Wellington.

RJH, owned by Sir Bob, bought the office building at 114 Lambton Quay from Civic Financial Services. It has been recently strengthened to 70 per cent of the New Building Standard (NBS).

RJH was formed in 1961 and says it is New Zealand's largest private CBD office building owner with about 900 tenancies in Wellington, Auckland, Sydney and Glasgow and assets of more than $2 billion.

All its Wellington CBD buildings are within five minutes walk of its head office, allowing hands on management, its website says. It would continue to acquire Wellington buildings which fitted its location and standards criteria.

With 58 Wellington CBD retail premises, including 35 on Lambton Quay, totalling almost 14,000 square metres, RJH is Wellington's largest retail premises CBD lessor.

RJH has signalled a facelift for the Civic building, including large new windows, air conditioning and free artwork for the occupants. RJH Wellington general manager Aaron Leech has said the company was comfortable with 70 per cent of NBS.

The location was key for the company and would appeal to the legal profession and embassies as well as others, he said. It is on the western side of Lambton Quay with access also onto The Terrace, and is close to the government sector, the courts and public transport, including Wellington Railway Station.

Civic Financial Services has owned the property since it was built in 1967. It was first known as the Local Government Building before changing its name to Civic Assurance House in 2007. Strengthening work by Civic Financial Services was completed in April 2019. Civic is owned by local government and supplies it with a range of financial services.