The former Barrington building (left), Sofrana on the right.
The former Barrington building (left), Sofrana on the right.
Peter Cooper’s Cooper and Company has completed a multi-million dollar refurbishment and upgrade of two adjoining heritage buildings valued at $25 million in Auckland’s downtown Britomart.
Jeremy Hansen of Britomart Group Management said restoration work to the newly-named neighbouring Hayman Kronfeld Buildings would be officially marked on Thursday.
The CustomsStreet East Buildings beside the Movenpick Hotel were previously called the Barrington Building, 10 Customs St East and Old Sofrana House, 14-18 Customs St East.
Hansen said historical research found these more modern-day names had been applied due to tenants purchasing naming rights.
But the buildings’ original names have now been reinstated.
The entrance area, where Daily Bread will trade from.
Office and retail tenants left the buildings more than two years ago pre-pandemic, he said.
The lifts had not functioned for years but now a new core has been installed with three glazed lifts to service floors within the two buildings.
The entrance to the buildings has been combined into one address as part of the refurbishment, Hansen said.
A new lobby with recycled brick flooring opening onto the new shared space on Galway St has also been created. The project is targeting a 5 Green Star rating from the Green Building Council.
These two old ex-warehouse buildings beside the modern hotel (left) have been refurbished with a combined entry.
Ground-floor shops are due to open in about two months. Space has been leased to a large Daily Bread franchise. Those premises run from Galway to Customs St. A grocery business has also leased space, Hansen said.
The refurbished offices have been leased to Arup, Greenwood Roche, Property For Industry and Southern Pastures/Lewis Road.
Designs for the refurbishment work were by Peddlethorp Architects.
The main lobby faces the Britomart Transport Centre and the revamped shared space on Galway St. On Customs Street East, the buildings feature colour schemes derived from paint-scraping investigations to determine their original shades.
Seismic strengthening was part of the work and heritage features have been blended with new ventilation and lighting and technology to monitor use of water and power.
The original Hayman and Kronfeld Buildings were designed by John Currie, an Irishman who arrived here in 1874.
The Hayman Building was built for English merchant brothers Henry and Lachlan Hayman in 1900, in a Victorian Italianate Palazzo style.
The more ornate Kronfeld Building was completed in 1905 for Gustav Kronfeld, a Prussian-born merchant who lived in Australia and the Pacific before migrating to Auckland with his Samoan wife Louis.
New entranceway created for both buildings off Galway St.
Britomart is an 18-building inner-city restoration which Cooper and Company says is the largest of its type undertaken in this country.
Peter Cooper’s business has leased the buildings long-term to refurbish them, as well as developing new blocks which include the headquarters for EY, Westpac and the Financial Markets Authority on Takutai Square, and the 99-room Hotel Britomart.
Cooper, based in Auckland and California’s Newport Beach, founded the $1b-plus Britomart.
The Landing is a 1000-hectare Cooper project on part of the Purerua Peninsula north of Waitangi where 50ha has been created for 41 blocks of land which are being sold. A further 90ha is stock grazing, 160ha is restored native bush, wetland and heritage sites and 130ha is grasslands including the 12ha vineyard and winery.
The first vines were planted in 2007 and the first wine produced in 2010.
