Williams Corp seeks to quit its penthouse office
Townhouse building goliath Williams Corporation is trying to move out of its plush penthouse base in central Christchurch.
Described as “arguably the best office space” in the city, the top floor of the Spark building in Cathedral Square was listed for rent last week by Colliers.
The “stunning”, “architecturally designed” penthouse site features 606sqm of largely open-plan office space, a “huge” north facing deck overlooking Cathedral Square and “high end amenities”, a TradeMe listing says.
“There has been no detail overlooked or expense spared in creating this work space,” the listing says.
The agent, Colliers director of commercial leasing Brynn Burrows, told Stuff the tenant, Williams Corporation, still had a term remaining on its lease, but would not say how long it was.
Burrows also wouldn’t reveal the expected rental price for the office space, but said there had been “strong interest” from three to four parties.
He declined to comment further about the listing, or the reason why Williams Corporation wanted to move out.
“They have been wanting to control the narrative,” he said.
Williams Corporation co-founder Matthew Horncastle said a confidentiality agreement in the lease meant he was unable to “discuss numbers”.
He refused to address a series of other questions from Stuff regarding the move, saying “we do not believe the story will benefit us so we do not wish to comment, sorry”.
Amid a downturn in the property market, Horncastle has offloaded or attempted to offload a series of high value items.
In March last year, he put up for sale a 2019 black McLaren, a white Rolls-Royce and G3 Mercedes worth in total about $1m because they were “surplus to requirements”.
A week later, he put his three-storey luxurious central Christchurch home up for sale. It sold in May for $2.225m.
At the time, he said he was upgrading to a larger house he was going to build, worth between $5m-6m in the wealthy Christchurch suburb of Merivale. Horncastle said the three-storey house would have an indoor swimming pool.
His business partner, Blair Chappell also owned a second freestanding house that was going up on the same property.
The land was initially earmarked for a Williams Corporation development of 11 townhouses, but that plan was dropped.
Late last year, Horncastle and Chappell put their luxury 26.5m yacht on the market with an asking price of nearly $6m.
The vessel, owned by the pair’s company M/Y WW Charters Ltd, was available for hire for $10,000 per day, a TradeMe listing said.
Asked in January what had prompted the sale, Horncastle said: “I have gone through the chapter of my life of owning a boat.”
“Assets of this nature are more practical for me to rent due to the amount of days I actually use it.”
Questions about the sale of the luxury yacht and Horncastle’s new Merivale property were among those he refused to answer this week
The latter, which is in Derby St, appeared to be completed when Stuff visited on Monday.
In an Instagram post last November, Horncastle referred to tough property market conditions his company, which builds homes in Christchurch, Auckland, Tauranga and Wellington, was facing.
“Trading property in a declining market forced me to get real with myself … Sometimes you need to accept market conditions change markets.”
Williams Corporation was planning a move into Australia and had set up three offices there, but pulled out in November because the timing “wasn’t quite right”, Horncastle said at the time.
“But we will definitely revisit our Australia position again in the future.” In another post, he said Williams Corporation “didn’t quite hit” a $1 billion milestone in property in 2023 “but we have achieved $200 million”.
“We have built over 1800 houses and delivered over a billion dollars of real estate. We continue to battle adversity and push our name out there in the market.”
Despite the dip, Horncastle told Stuff in January he was optimistic about the year’s prospects, saying the market was getting better every day.
In a social media post in February he said Williams Corporation was buying land in Auckland and Christchurch.
“We’re starting the year with great sales – sales that I’m really proud of – and we’re going to need to make sure we have the next round or projects lined up to meet our customer’s demand. So, there is money there – the Williams Corp chequebook is open.”