Around 100 stores are due to open by 2024. Photo / supplied
Around 100 stores are due to open by 2024. Photo / supplied
Architects are carrying out detailed design work on Auckland Airport's new outlet centre which has been named Mānawa Bay to recognise surrounding mangroves.
Mark Thomson, property and commercial general manager, said Australian architects were carrying out layout work for the interior of the $200 million centre being built near theairport.
TRCB Architects headquartered in Perth were now advancing the final stages of documenting the centre's design and that firm was involved in designing Perth's DFO outlet centre, Thomson said.
Graham Taylor of TRCB said Vicinity Centres and Perth Airport engaged his firm to design Western Australia's first DFO Outlet Centre. That was around 33,000sq m, had around 100 tenancies, a 400-seat casual dining area and many external spaces.
Thomson said three entry points are being created at the new Auckland project and the building will be in a figure-eight layout.
Around 100 stores are due to open by 2024. Photo / supplied
The outlet centre has also been named Mānawa Bay, reflecting the airport's location on the Māngere Peninsula and the historical and cultural significance of the area to tangata whenua.
Thomson said that in te reo Māori, mānawa means mangroves which are in waterways surrounding the airport. So airport staff had worked with local iwi on the project, he said.
In March, the airport said work was under way for foundations to be laid for the new hub.
Heart of the new hub, under construction at the airport. Photo / supplied
Last September, the airport announced the project, saying then it would have 120 shops.
The shops are being built on a greenfields site northeast of the runways and domestic terminal on former Aviation Golf Club land, on holes 11 to 17.
Elsewhere at the airport, retailing has been quiet.
In May, the Herald reported how Auckland Airport retailers had begun opening up after a two-year hiatus for most, but the country's busiest airport warns not all will have their doors open this year.
Two months ago, just 30 per cent of Auckland Airport's some-90 retailers had their doors open for travellers, in line with the recovery of international passengers. And while more and more are preparing to open up in coming months, staffing issues are the biggest barrier at present.
For the new outlet centre now rising, more than 100 shops are due to open in 2024 and the building will be 2.4ha indoors or 24,000sq m of floor space.
The site is 15ha or 150,000sq m.
Shops are to sell fashion, lifestyle, athletic/leisure items, homeware brands, food and drink.
Earthworks to prepare the building platform have been completed and Thomson said the next phase of construction would begin this spring.
Mark Thomson and Lucy Thomas of the airport at the site a few months ago. Photo / supplied
Australia has a string of DFO outlets around some of its airports, as well as in cities.
Architect Graham Taylor of TRCB said outlet shopping centres had experienced a revival lately.
"Premium outlet centres are growing as a distinct and popular retail category, particularly at airport locations. They're no longer a place just to buy seconds or last season's fashion goods at discount prices – they've evolved to a much more upmarket and immersive shopping experience."
A number of international brands now had distinct strategies around outlet locations, recognising they have a broad and captive market to deliver new, contemporary fashion goods and accessories, he said.
The new Auckland outlet centre's park-like setting would make it "one of the leading outlet centres in Australasia", with a food and beverage area located at the heart of the centre offering indoor/outdoor seating. Large windows will maximise water views and bring in natural light and northern sun.
What it might look like once the centre opens in 2024. Photo / supplied
Interiors would be purposefully pared-back: polished concrete floors and an overall industrial finish. But toilets will have warmer colours, natural tones and more tactile textures.
Interiors would be in a contemporary design without pretence, Taylor said, ranging from 100sq m up to 1500sq m.
For the exterior, the ideas of flight and air were an inspiration.
"So we've played with concepts of lightness and movement, expressed graphically within the form and shape, as opposed to creating a traditional, rectangular-shaped warehouse," Taylor said.
The building would be almost 300m long so the roof had many different angles to reflect the shape of its site and give it more interest architecturally, he said.
"The facade has been designed to make the building look like it's moving rather than just appearing static or like a shed."
Asked why a Perth architect was designing an Auckland mall, Taylor said it was his firm's debut here: "We do work across Australia and because we have done a lot of retail work across Australia, it wasn't that much of a stretch to work in Auckland. We're collaborating with a New Zealand practice Eclipse Architecture."
He had visited the site a number of times and would return next month.
The airport is targeting 5-Star Green design and build rating on its project.
