Hotel levels are lower, office levels are higher at One Queen, which is the Deloitte Centre. Photo / Dean Purcell
Hotel levels are lower, office levels are higher at One Queen, which is the Deloitte Centre. Photo / Dean Purcell
Walk out of the city’s newest rooftop restaurant on level 21 at 1 Queen St and you’re standing under a glazed roof above Quay St facing the waterfront.
But head to the eastern end of that four-metre-deep deck where the canopy ends and you’re taking in an outdoor view ofAuckland rarely seen, looking down over Te Komititangi, the former Central Post Office, up Queen St, with the skeletal structure of the 56-level Seascape outlined in the distance.
The old office building which was once Air New Zealand’s headquarters but more latterly HSBC House has had a $310 million makeover.
NZX-listed Precinct Properties undertook this country’s largest building renovation on the block which has three names: One Queen, the Deloitte Centre and InterContinental Auckland.
Precinct and IHG Hotels & Resorts says the new InterContinental Auckland will open on January 30.
Scott Pritchard in the InterContinental Auckland before the January 30 opening. Photo / Dean Purcell
Last Thursday, Precinct Properties’ chief executive Scott Pritchard and development manager Iain Purdie took the Herald on the first tour of the renovated building which Pritchard refers to as the final piece of the jigsaw puzzle in the $1 billion-plus Commercial Bay.
A hotel on the lower levels, there are offices with an extra metre added to every floor on the waterfront side of One Queen. Photo / Dean Purcell
He acknowledged that Covid and the July tragedies had delayed work on the block but praised those on the site for all they had achieved in the face of such adversity and difficult circumstances.
Development renovations were designed by Warren and Mahoney Architects Blair Johnston and Michael Mason. Those two architects also worked with New York’s AvroKO on the hotel room interior design.
An extra 1m floor area was added to the building’s upper office levels on the waterfront side, giving extra proximity to the water for added drama.
Inside one of the luxurious rooms at the InterContinental Auckland with a Tardis-like minibar (far right). Photo / Dean Purcell
“We’ll have about 1000 people working in the building and about 200 to 250 hotel guests. We’re hoping to have hundreds in the hospitality venues,” Pritchard said.
The block was around 98 per cent of the building code before the renovation, but main contractor LT McGuinness added steel reinforcing to concrete beams, bringing it to 100 per cent. Holmes did the engineering. Steel rods were driven through concrete beams and carbon fibre was used to give the structure more tension.
Heading down from the outdoor level 21 which will be open to the public to level 20, we’re standing in Deloitte’s reception with its curved main desk. Level 19 has meeting rooms already fitted out. Roof services have been exposed, meaning stud heights go from 2.7m to a new, more spacious 3.6m.
The minibar in a sixth-level room at the InterContinental Auckland. Photo / Dean Purcell
Around 700 contractors are working on the block in the mad dash to finish, so it’s a matter of negotiating many hazards in PPE gear to get an idea of the finish.
On level six of the new five-star InterContinental, we visit the 52sq m twin-bedroom room 0605 looking towards the city. The furniture was designed by Space Studio and made by Avondale’s Titan Furniture, Pritchard said.
A woven flax artwork at the new InterContinental Auckland. Photo / Dean Purcell
Blinds automatically rise with a room entry keycard swipe. Most astonishing hotel feature? A Tardis-like minibar, single wardrobe-sized, ripple glass-clad with an Italian marble travertine benchtop.
“The minibar lights up as the blinds rise when you enter the room,” Purdie says, demonstrating on entry.
Around 700 workers are now at One Queen before the offices and new hotel open. Photo / Dean Purcell
Each room has woven harakeke (flax) art honouring atua (God). On level six, it’s all Papatūānuku - the earth mother.
A larger corner suite room 0610 has waterfront and western Harbour Bridge/Wynyard Quarter views.
One Queen is also the Deloitte Centre. Photo / Dean Purcell
Along the corridor, also with stained white oak dark panelling with light grey carpet, we head east to a standard-sized room 0611, also with its glass-clad minibar.
All up, the building is 15,000sq m of net lettable area.
On January 15, Deloitte begins its move.
Deloitte Centre/InterContential Hotel/One Queen:
Basement: a bar, opening second quarter 2024, new concept by Matt Nicholls, also of Public and Reign & Pour at Commercial Bay and Bedford Soda in Ponsonby;
Ground floor: shops of 102sq m and 220sq m fronting Queen St/Quay St, tenants yet to be announced;
Level one: hotel restaurant, opening January 30 with partner chef Gareth Stewart. Also main hotel lobby;
Level two: part of Harbour Eats/One Queen dining, Burger Burger, Ghost Donkey, Gochu and Gemmi, opened June 2020;
Levels three: gym and InterContiental club lounge;
Levels four and five: private offices by Precinct. Of seven offices here, four are leased to Buffer, Mitsubishi and PAG. Three are still available to lease;
Levels six to 11: InterContinental Auckland, 8827sq m with 139 guest rooms (cut from an originally planned 244). Presidential suite of 120sq m. Hotel has 20-year management agreement.
Levels 12 to 14: Bell Gully on three floors, new offices when the lawyers vacate Shortland St’s Vero Centre where they’ve been for many years; 3800sq m, 15-year lease;
Levels 15 to 20: Deloitte on six floors or 7500sq m on a 20-year lease;
Level 21: rooftop restaurant and bar to be operated by Five Fellas, 305sq m of internal space and 275sq m of outdoor verandas.
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.
