CBD on cusp of next office development cycle
The next phase of commercial building development is starting in the Wellington CBD, geared to meet a high level of “pent-up demand”. Steve Maitland, a specialist in CBD office leasing in the capital, says that there will shortly be four new commercial property projects under way in the central city.
“The big question is, ‘will this be enough?’ To put it in perspective, Wellington lost a significant amount of building stock in the 2016 earthquake, some of which has been repaired or strengthened and returned to the market, but some of which has disappeared entirely.”
The new complexes poised to get under way are:
● Precinct Properties intends to start building the second stage of the Bowen campus at 40 Bowen St, providing around 10,000sq m of office space to three main corporate anchor tenants, Fujitsu, EY and Generator. Pending future demand, Precinct also has plans to build an adjacent building linked to 40 Bowen St by atrium.
● On the waterfront, Newcrest has committed BNZ as sole tenant at 1 Whitmore St and the site is being prepared for a new 12 storey baseisolated office building, providing
17,000sq m of premium grade offices.
● Willis Bond & Co has started site works on their Victoria Lane Office Campus in Victoria St. They are offering three floors of office space totalling 3000sq m. They also have plans to add a further office building offering an additional 6000sq m of space. These floors can be interlinked providing 9000sq m in total.
● Willis Bond & Co’s plans for Site
9,15 Customhouse Quay are also well advanced with Bell Gully the foundation tenant; two floors remain available for lease providing
900-1800sqm of space.
These developments are in addition to the office space currently being strengthened and refurbished by Prime Properties at 2-10 Brandon St, where 14,000sqm is earmarked for completion later this year. RJH are refurbishing and extending an existing building on the corner of Featherston St and Brandon St, providing 2500sq m of boutique space.
“More flexible working styles will need to be accommodated by businesses and their workers, particularly in the aftermath of lockdown and enforced ‘work from home’ regimes,” says Maitland. “There’s talk of ‘expanded’ work areas becoming more favoured — a result of the social distancing movement and a change from the historic drive to tighter work areas and more efficient ‘people to square metres’ measures.”
Consolidation of sites is also still occurring, says Maitland. BNZ will be relocating from three buildings into one new building when it moves to Whitmore St in the first quarter of 2023. Fujitsu now operates from two sites and will move to a single location at Bowen Campus in late 2022.
Seismic resilience is still paramount with tenants chasing the minimum NBS rating of 100 per cent plus offered by these new buildings.
“New development rejuvenates a city as well as providing business with space better suited to their requirements,” Maitland says.