Site works underway months ago. Photo/Continental Cars BMW
Site works underway months ago. Photo/Continental Cars BMW
An Auckland hill beside the Northern Motorway has been levelled and about 10,000 truck loads of soil removed for New Zealand's largest Continental Cars BMW dealership.
Geoff Light, Continental Cars BMW dealer principal, said the almost-completed new building at 45-65 Wairau Rd, Glenfield had room for around 150 newand second-hand BMWs, which made it the biggest premises of its type in New Zealand.
Jeremy Whelan, Ignite Architects' managing director, estimated the hill had a gradient of 40 to 50 degrees and that around 20,000 cu m to 30,000 cu m of earth was removed from the site. Trucks take around 3cu m of earth on each run, so around 10,000 truckloads of soil was moved in.
"It will also have some alternative brands like Audi and Land Rover. That makes it New Zealand's biggest multi-level BMW dealership," Light said.
The project is a multi-million dollar investment by the New Zealand arm of Sime Darby, the Malaysia-based diversified multi-national.
Michael Doeg, Sime Darby Retail Group NZ general manager, said that business had spent "tens of millions", buying the steep land beside SH1 for the prominence it offered and developing the new premises.
The business bought the land and funded the development, Doeg said. Around 1000 vehicles would be sold from the new premises annually, he estimated.
Scott Inverarity, associate director of Ignite Architects who has worked on the project for the last four years, said the greenfields site was challenging.
How the new premises will look on completion. Photo/Continental Cars BMW
"We're the last cab off the rank," he said of the development on the ex-hillside near many other car dealerships, opposite Archibald & Shorter North Shore, facing the Wairau Rd/Porana Rd intersection. "You look at the last piece of land available and it's the hardest piece to work with.
Ground-floor showroom at the new building. Photo/Anne Gibson
"The site was developed from the top down. Some topsoil was removed initially to create construction access for site preparation. Then, piles were drilled through the hill, filled with concrete which then created the structural stability for the earth and we dug down in front of them," said Inverarity, pointing to an 80m-long concrete retaining wall running the site's width.
That retaining wall also forms the back wall of the west-facing premises which look to the north only on the top or third level, alongside the motorway.
"If you look at the location, it's in car valley and there's not a lot of sites around," Inverarity said of the choice of land between Westlake Boys' High School and Westlake Girls' High School.
Fulton Hogan completed earthworks, with initial enabling works starting around two years ago opposite PaknSave Wairau. The building is due to open this winter.
Plans show the west-facing new premises, Wairau Rd. Photo/Continental Cars BMW
Inverarity said a key aspect of the job was supporting NZ Transport Agency infrastructure when working alongside SH1 and carrying out such significant earthworks.
So the 80m-wide retaining wall was built to stabilise the site and the location alongside SH1 was used to advantage: a two-level steel car display structure has been built on level three. About three vehicles will be displayed within that to promote the dealer location and its brands.
Ground floor, beneath the mezzanine. Photo/Anne Gibson
Flashing lights or moving images beside SH1 were barred for safety considerations, Inverarity said, but the display would be prominent at night.
Steve Stermi, Sime Darby Motors NZ project manager, said: "There were 125 piles drilled to secure the 80m wall. Those average 16m deep and are anchored into the rock."
A new set of traffic lights will be installed to provide for safe egress and ingress from the premises.
The three-level building is around 100m long by 50m wide and has 6000sq m of indoor floor space. That is a big expansion on the tightly constrained Continental Cars BMW Takapuna site, on the Lake Rd/Bracken Ave corner.
Amstar won the main contract and worked with other businesses, including Scarbro Construction. About 60 staff will work in the new building.
The ground-floor showroom has a 7.4m internal stud height, open to an after-sales mezzanine floor. Re-charging points for electric vehicles are embedded in that floor.
Vehicles will be serviced and washed on the top or level 3 floor, where 24 services bays will be in action. Tanks holding around 50,000L of water collect rain, then the water will be used to wash vehicles.
And to re-charge those electric BMWs below? Solar panels on the roof would generate electricity for that service, Inverarity said.
