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Two adjoining lower Queen St properties, dating from the beginning of last century, are being refurbished as attractive character offices.
The Imperial and Everybody's Buildings at 44-56 Queen St have had a colourful history individually operating as The Queens Picture Theatre, one of Auckland's first cinemas, and The Everybody's Picture Theatre - then later The Roxy. The buildings were also used as tearooms, offices, a paint manufacturing and glass retail outlet, apartments and a flagship store for Woolworths. More recently they have been occupied by an Asian Food Court, a $2 Shop and Mrs Higgins Cookies.
AMP Life purchased Everybody's Building and half the Imperial Building in 1967 from Woolworths on a 40-year leaseback. During this time, large parts of the Imperial Building lay empty and in need of extensive repair.
The buildings were then on-sold to AMP Capital Investors and it wasn't until the end of last year AMP could access the premises. On the day the lease expired, the company also bought the lessee's interest in the other half of the Imperial Building.
AMP's development arm is now gutting the interiors of both the buildings and knocking out parts of the abutting walls separating them to create connections and open up 3370sq m of character office space over four floors behind the distinctive heritage facades of the two buildings, now known collectively as the Imperial Buildings.
The company is spending about $8 million on the extensive refurbishment that includes strengthening the property, adding a further floor in Everybody's Building, re-roofing, rewiring, re-plumbing and bringing the buildings up to fire safety standards.
Luxury retailers Gucci and Louis Vuitton were already signed up for the newly created ground-floor shops before the Woolworths lease expired and their new premises will open at the end of next month or early May. Louis Vuitton is moving from across the road to a bigger store that has more street presence.
AMP Capital's development executive Michael Sweetman says the company targeted luxury goods retailers and found there was an appetite for shops at the bottom of Queen St.
"We are within a stone's throw of the Britomart transport and heritage building areas, and 50 metres from the Queen St and Shortland St junction. This locale is also recognised for its big volumes of tourist traffic, particularly during the cruise ship season."
Colliers International commercial leasing brokers India Rouse and Chris Palmer are leasing the four office floors, which have been restored in places to the original brick walls, tongue and groove floors, vaulted ceilings and exposed beams. The heritage features that have survived different refurbishments over nearly 100 years have thus been retained.
AMP Capital worked closely with the Auckland City Council's heritage department and Historic Places Trust on plans for the conjoined buildings, so heritage features were enhanced. Both buildings have Historic Places Trust classifications and are also protected under the council's district plan.
"Some exciting details were discovered when false ceilings and wall linings were ripped off," says Rouse.
"In parts of the property, there is still clear evidence of the elaborate ceilings used in its days as a movie theatre and these are being carefully renovated, along with other hidden architectural features."
Rouse and Palmer say it has been a pleasant surprise to discover the amount of space that can be used as offices within the property. Level One has 1400sq m, Level Two 1100sq m, Level Three 550sq m and Level Four 440sq m.
"There is room for up to 13 tenancies," says Palmer. There are natural divisions within the property and Palmer says it will suit a multi-divisional company wanting a Queen St address or a firm that wants to lift its reputation by occupying a distinctive building. The floors are being left as shells so tenants can do their own fit-outs. Sweetman says the Imperial Buildings are not the type of property that would typically be associated with AMP but the company structured its alternative assets area to source and invest in a broad range of opportunistic developments with attractive development margins. The Lion Nathan brewery site at Newmarket is AMP Capital's biggest recent acquisition.
"The Imperial Buildings are an architectural gem behind a distinctive facade that offers a lot of development pluses," says Sweetman.
The four-storey Imperial building was erected in 1911 for William and George Elliot and the upper floors tenanted to professional firms and small businesses. The Queens Picture Theatre was opened the same year on the ground floor and is believed to have been the first cinema in Queen St.
Nine years after it was built, the Imperial Building was sold to glass and paint merchants Phillipps & Impey who manufactured paint in the building's beamed cellar. The southern part of the building was sold in 1935 to Woolworths for £50,000. The property was developed into the Imperial Arcade in the 1970s.
It is thought that the Everybody's Building next door could have been built as early as 1886, but the most substantial portion of the property was rebuilt in 1915 and used as The Everybody's Picture Theatre for 20 years sitting beside the Queens Picture Theatre.
The buildings were designed in the Edwardian free classical style, although the Imperial Building also has baroque influences.
The buildings' style is characterised by a symmetrical facade and entrance, vestigial pediment, unconventional classical orders, simplified colonnades and other classical elements introduced into an otherwise simple interior.
Architects such as Edwin Lutyens and American Frank Furness were influential in popularising this style, which they saw as a development towards a more modern form of architecture.
In 1928, the Everybody's Theatre closed and Woolworths took over the lease adapting the building as a department store but relocated to the Imperial Building next door in 1935 after a fire.
Everybody's Building was modified and opened as a new picture theatre called The Roxy. For a time, the property was the head office of Amalgamated Theatres.
Woolworths again used the building as a retail outlet in 1955. A major refit in the 1980s saw Woolworths spent $500,000 driving 10 metres into the earth to the old harbour bed to join both buildings for the launch of its branded Deka store.
Rouse says the Imperial Buildings have been a real find in an area of the CBD where tenants struggle to find space. "With the beauty of these buildings anything is possible."
