Mansons’ projects tally $1b-plus
Developer busy in Auckland CBD and fringe
New Zealand’s largest private developer, Mansons TCLM, has $1 billionplus of work on or just completed. Director Culum Manson outlined a programme of works which sought to supply much-needed new Auckland CBD and city fringe office space, from the Wynyard Quarter to Newmarket.
Manson said the biggest new Mansons TCLM job was in the Wynyard Quarter opposite Victoria Park, where a tower crane is on the ex-Caltex service station site at 155-167 Fanshawe St. A $265m six star greenrated office block is rising between the Air New Zealand and Fonterra headquarters. No tenants are precommitted, so the building is on spec.
“It’s the only freehold land in that area,” Manson said, referring to surrounding land being owned by Auckland Council and Tramco.
James Kellow, a director of NZ Mortgages & Securities, which is part of the Manson business, said: “The operating expenses will be half those of the neighbours.”
Architectus designed the eightlevel 15,354sq m building with 80 carparks, work started last June and is due to finish next June. Manson said its six-star rating would set a new benchmark in the sector.
At 46 Albert St, which media company NZME left in 2015, a $200m-plus project is underway by EVEN Hotel Group. Mansons intends to build a $350m 10-level office building adjacent to that new hotel. The first EVEN hotel outside the United States will open on the Wyndham St corner in 2020 in a 37-level tower, which will also include a Holiday Inn.
Mansons bought the NZME site for $40m about four years ago and has already recouped most of that by onselling a portion. “We sold a quarter of it for $31m and are retaining the remaining three-quarters for development,” Manson said of the corner hotel site. An application is yet to be made to build the offices on that site, he said.
In Newmarket, Mansons is well advanced on the new $143m Mercury Energy building at 33 Broadway. Construction is forecast to be completed next January and the project has already been sold to NZXlisted Augusta Capital.
At 96 St Georges Bay Rd in Parnell, work is nearly finished on a $125m project, 97 per cent leased to Asahi NZ, Harrison Grierson and a listed corporate who will take naming rights, Manson said. That office block will be finished by July.
Mansons has finished the AA Insurance building on Sale St in the Victoria Quarter and sold that to an offshore pension fund, Pacific Alliance Group, for around $117m. AA is the anchor tenant. Fujitsu NZ, EziBuy NZ and WPP Group also leased space.
At 17 Hargreaves St in St Marys Bay, a new $80m office project is under way. NZX-listed Gentrack has leased half that. The site is above the prominent Victory Church where Fanshawe St meets the motorway. Fuji Xerox was previously on that site. At 74 St Georges Bay Rd, Mansons is building new offices for their own business, moving from next door. That Fearon Hay design is due to be finished next April and will be 2054sq m with 34 carparks.