Grand Arcade gets major refurbishment
The Grand Arcade on Wellington’s Willis St will be refurbished over the next two years, to add more big retailers and a childcare facility, but it will come at the expense of existing tenants.
Construction is due to start in March and be completed early in 2019.
JLL property has managed the arcade for 20 years and will oversee the refurbishment and leasing of the space.
The company’s national director of project and development services, Ben Dalton, said refurbishment would include adding a 1000sqm childcare facility, a new facade and entrance on Willis St, moving the existing tenants, and moving the escalators in the middle of the building to bring in more natural light.
FoneBitz owner Graham Winfield, a tenant of the arcade, said he would have to move out during the year of construction and would take up smaller premises if he returned.
He had three years left on the lease of his current shop, which he said was a ‘‘bit big’’.
He said it would be tough to find a lease for a year, and if he reestablished himself elsewhere he probably would not want to move again in 2019.
Puro Chile co-owner Rodrigo Cartagena said his empanada cafe may move upstairs during the renovations.
Cartagena expected he would lose some business during the year, and was considering opening a restaurant in Wellington with business partner Luis Guerrero to make up for lost profits.
JLL senior property manager Jared Nicholson said the arcade was in a good location but was ‘‘not realising its potential’’.
Increased interest from national and international retailers meant the timing was right to ‘‘revitalise the asset and optimise the tenancies’’, he said.
City Fitness will remain as the arcade’s anchor tenant.
JLL agent Jon Williams said international retailers were delaying their plans for Wellington until more floor space became available.
The redevelopment would attract the new international brands ‘‘the market [was] desperate for’’, he said.
The refurbishment was designed by architects Designgroup Stapleton Elliott.
The Grand Arcade building is not itself historic, but was the site of 19th century entrepreneur Baron Charles von Alzdorf‘s ‘‘earthquake-proof’’ two-storey brick hotel.
He was killed when it collapsed in the 1855 earthquake.