Culum Manson of Mansons TCLM on NZ's biggest new office block rising. Video / Dean Purcell
Milford Asset Management, with $19 billion of funds under management, will shift its Australasian headquarters into this country’s largest new under-construction office block where a new library to commemorate late co-founder Brian Gaynor is planned.
James Bourke, Milford’s chief financial officer, said around 145 staff would move fromtwo floors of Kiwi Property Group’s Vero tower on Shortland St into the new Fifty Albert by Mansons TCLM.
“We’re certainly anticipating having a Brian Gaynor library in the new building. That will have many publications he subscribed to and the plan is also to display some of his more prominent articles,” Bourke said of the former Herald and National Business Review finance columnist praised as a fearless champion for New Zealand companies and investors.
The late Brian Gaynor will have a library named after him by the firm he co-founded, Milford Asset Management. Photo / NZME
Milford is now on Vero’s level 28 where it has a full floor and half a floor on level 37.
The business this year celebrated its 20th anniversary.
Bourke said Milford had leased all the top floor, or level 12, of the new Albert St block.
“We expect to move around November next year, fingers crossed,” he said.
Spark will move 1800 staff into the building from two Auckland locations around 2025, leaving Victoria St and Mayoral Dr. The telco has naming rights on the building’s exterior.
Fifty Albert St: under-construction by Mansons TCLM.
Bourke said of Milford’s shift: “The main driver is to enable us to all be on the same floor. There are a couple of secondary drivers but we need to be together. It’s not a great engagement experience when you’re split across two floors and you need to get into a lift to be able to access different floors in this building.”
Enhancing collaboration and engagement were big prompts but the quarter-hectare, or approximately 2300sq m, floor area was another draw.
James Bourke of Milford.
“A secondary consideration when we were looking at our options was the floor plate. These are much bigger in the new building, almost double the single-floor size in Vero.
“When we looked at options there were two things at Fifty Albert: being on one floor as well as the building design where the services are against one wall. That results in a very clear footprint, similar to Commercial Bay where all the lifts are on one side. You get a nice, clean floorplate to design with,” he said.
Another equally important consideration was the new building’s anticipated six-star green rating.
Plans show how Spark's new building could look when it makes the shift to Fifty Albert. Photo / supplied
Milford has a 12-year lease with rights of renewal at the end of that.
How its new floor will look is now being decided.
“Because of the large footprint and services being against one wall, that will support more modern ways of working. We will have a mix of flexible or hot desks and fixed desks, depending on the team leads’ decisions. At this stage, we’re still going through that.”
Plans for the new 12-level Fifty Albert. Photo / Mansons TCLM
The floor size will also cater for Milford’s growth over the longer term, Bourke said, because more than 200 people were expected to work for the business in the next decade as it expands its presence.
Milford has offices in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Wellington, Tauranga, Cambridge, Christchurch and Wānaka.
All up, about 185 people are employed by the business.
Take a walk on the Spark side: how it might look inside Fifty Albert Street. Photo / supplied
More collaboration and breakout meeting spaces would be available to staff in the new premises.
“Our offices in Vero have a more of a traditional office layout,” he said.
Culum Manson at the site when work got under way. Photo / Dean Purcell
Culum Manson said today demand for Fifty Albert had been strong.
“The building is 28,000sq m, 6 green star and 120 per cent carbon offset offices. It has been well received by occupiers and is now fully leased a year out from completion.
“We are finding customers are committing much earlier in the construction process and as a result, we have a few who missed out here in Albert St. We have moved them across to our next 6 green star development in the Wynyard Quarter,” Manson said.
Significant features of Fifty Albert would be:
• quarter-hectare floor plates of 2300sq m;
• around 3000 people to work there;
• 637sq m ground-floor retail;
• 206 car parks in three basement levels sleeved into sloping site;
• Albert St main reception, Mills Lane frontage too;
• Ten 1800kg lifts to run at 3.5m/second and one goods lift;
• 3m internal stud heights;
• naming rights let to tenants.
Anne Gibson has been the Herald’s property editor for 23 years, has won many awards, written books and covered property extensively here and overseas.
