Commercial Bay announces new opening date after coronavirus delay

Friday, 29 May 2020

Commercial Bay, the $700 million retail and office development will open on June 11.

Commercial Bay, the $700 million shopping centre in downtown Auckland, will open on June 11 after an 8 month delay.

The centre was scheduled to open on March 28, just days after New Zealand moved into the level 4 lockdown.

The Precinct Properties development includes a 39,000 square-metre office tower and 18,000sqm of retail space.

Precinct Properties chief executive Scott Pritchard says the finishing touches after the lockdown required a lot of work.

* Auckland's huge Commercial Bay retail precinct now fully leased

* Precinct Properties' profit boosted by Fletcher Construction damages payments

Precinct chief executive Scott Pritchard said the company was excited to see Commercial Bay open after five years of development.

'This is an enormous project and there have literally been hundreds and hundreds of people that have been working on it,' Pritchard said.

'When you are heading to a goal like opening, you become very focused on it. But we could see at the same time that Covid-19 was emerging as a real risk.'

In the last weeks before lockdown, the company was trying to get as much done as possible.

'For a while there we still hoped we would be able to open but once we realised we were heading into lockdown, we had to shift gears.'

Pritchard said the finishing touches after the lockdown has required a lot of work, particularly with new safety measures to ensure social distancing.

Commercial Bay has three levels of retail and laneways.

That meant that while the company was just a week away from opening before the coronavirus outbreak, it has took longer to get to the opening date after restriction began to be lifted, he said.

Opening events were still being finalised but would comply with social distancing rules, Pritchard said.

Commercial Bay's shopping precinct has three levels of retail with laneways and open spaces.

Ryan Sharma, managing director of Bluebells Cakery said he would finally open the company's flagship store in the centre.

First Retail Group managing director Chris Wilkinson says malls need to keep evolving.

'We are very excited to finally be getting underway at Commercial Bay and doing our bit to breathe life and yummy treats back in to the CBD,' Sharma said.

'The whole precinct is looking amazing and is going to be a real focal point for locals, office workers and local tourists.'

Sharma and partner Karla Goodwin had to mothball their business during the Covid-19 crisis, which was particularly painful after the six-figure fit-out for the new store, he said.

'The opening is better late than never, we are just relieved we are still standing after a tough couple of months,' he said.

Commercial Bay represented another evolution for retail, First Retail chief executive Chris Wilkinson said.

'The format is quite different, there is an open air element to the development, with the intimacy of small laneways,' he said.

The more sophisticated environment was in keeping with shoppers in the area, he said.

Despite a wariness over the coronavirus, he expected Commercial Bay to do well.

'Good quality malls will continue to prosper, but the older malls, those that haven't evolved over the last decade, will struggle as spending tightens and people's priorities change.'

Commercial Bay faced a number of delays during its construction.

The retail precinct was originally due to open last September but this was moved to March due to delays by contractor Fletcher Construction to complete the buildings.

The delay cost Fletcher Construction $52m in liquidated damages.

Pritchard expected the delays related to Covid-19 will have cost Precinct Properties, but he would not provide a figure.