Which retailers will anchor Auckland's Commercial Bay

Friday, 11 December 2015

A substantial new piece of the Auckland waterfront jigsaw has been unveiled, and with it the prospect of some top international retailers.

Sandwiched in between the Viaduct area and Wynyard quarter on one side, and Britomart on the other, the new area will be called Commercial Bay.

The complex will tie four existing buildings to a new 39-storey office block with 100 shops and restaurants at the bottom of Albert and Lower Queen streets.

Situated on the existing Downtown Shopping Centre site, it will include tunnels underneath for the City Rail Link, receive cruise and ferry passengers on its doorstep, and incorporate the Albert St bus interchange.

Speculation is high as to who will potentially move in, with Zara, Uniglo and H&M among the potential candidates.

But Scott Pritchard, chief executive of the developer Precinct Properties, said he was not naming any names,

'I can't confirm who we're talking to in terms of retail at the moment. The key phase we've just been through is getting pre-commitment on the office tower and that's enabled us to launch the project.'

He hoped to have a clearer idea of which retailers were going in by 2017.

'The smaller ones tend not to commit to space until it's a year or 18 months out from completion and we're still just under three years away.'

But 'we're excited by that opportunity, just really based on how strong the retail market is in the CBD at the moment'.

PwC Tower, as the new office block will be called, will be the city's tallest office building, although the Sky Tower still trumps it for height.

Construction will be led by Fletcher Building with design by Warren & Mahoney.

Work is expected to begin in June next year and the retail centre is expected to open in October 2018, with the office tower completed in mid-2019.

A basement of 278 carparks would be used by office workers, but Pritchard said he was hoping to unlock them for the public at the weekend.

The four existing Precinct buildings involved  are Zurich House, the HSBC building, the current PwC tower and the AMP Centre.

When they are physically linked to the new tower building, they will accommodate 10,000 workers and give Precinct a 2-hectare area worth $1.5 billion.

Pritchard said the new office tower would cost $681 million to build but would be worth $813m when completed.

He said he was aware the complex was a significant hunk of real estate, which was why it had been two years in the planning.

 'Because it's such a significant block in the middle of Auckland city and it's right on the waterfront, it would be a shame to not do it justice.

'It's also taken a while to get our business into a position where we're able to fund it and not take on too much risk.

'So by really having very little debt in the business up until yesterday and by having the equivalent of a fixed price construction contract with Fletchers to build it, and by leasing half of the office tower, we've taken as much risk out of it as we can.'

Pritchard said the cruise ship business was not the sole target of its retail plans, 'but certainly we'll be having 160,000-odd people dropped off on the doorstep to spend money'.

'So it is a key attraction for us and something we want to try and provide retail for those types of tourists who are happy to spend a dollar or two.'

The complex has been named Commercial Bay because the area was originally called that when it was a trading hub in the 1800s.

Auckland mayor Len Brown welcomed Commercial Bay as one of several transformative projects for the city centre.

'The private sector is demonstrating its confidence in Auckland's future by investing billions in our city centre.

'It has long been said Auckland is the powerhouse of the New Zealand economy.  That is now a reality.'

it would also give Aucklanders the first tangible glimpses of the City Rail Link, which would more than double the number of workers it could bring into the city.

Talks with Government to get it onboard with the CRL project were going well.

'The only remaining issue is the timing of government funding.'