Attempt to notify tower plans fails

AMP NZ Office Trust tried to force notification of plans for Auckland's biggest new tower.

Via its lawyers at Minter Ellison Rudd Watts, the NZX-listed trust wanted any hearings to be in public and applied to have rival developer Tim Edney's plans processed by Auckland City on a notified basis.

But planning commissioner Greg Hill rejected that. Once bonus elements were taken into account, plans for a new 26-level Auckland tower conformed to rules on maximum height and floor-area ratios, an Auckland City Council report said.

Rob Lang of the trust said this week Edney's plans did not initially appear to comply with Auckland's district plan: "We thought the plans should be notified. We watch what's happening in the market and try to understand how that may affect the market that we are investors in. Here is a proposed development that, at face value, didn't comply with the district plan."

The leasing market was "extremely challenging" and he predicted any developer with big new plans would have to compromise on either parking, design or services of a new building to secure a tenant.

The new tower planned for a block on Customs St East might be aimed at ANZ, now occupying a number of Auckland sites. The bank has about a quarter, or 8000sq m, of Albert St's high-rise ANZ Tower owned by the trust, space in the National Bank twin-towers on Queen St and in Newmarket.

Banks have been on the move in Auckland lately.

Westpac has partially completed a move to Customs St, into Westpac Charter House by Cooper and Company and will eventually leave AMP's PricewaterhouseCoopers Tower on Quay St, once Hawkins Construction has finished its new building alongside Westpac Charter House. BNZ has vacated 125 Queen St and shifted over the road to 80 Queen St. The two-level shopping arcade at 125 Queen St has been evacuated, the construction site secured and refurbishment and expansion has begun.

ASB is expected to confirm a shift out of its Albert St tower onto a Viaduct site leased by Kiwi Income Property Trust, which wants to build its new tower.

A new subleasing website has been started by Mathew Firth, who said he was prompted by a big rise in the number of tenants and landlords seeking sub-tenants.

Edney has been working on his plans for more than a year. Last February, Auckland's Urban Design Panel required changes and after these were made last April it said the tower "represents an excellent urban design response".

The council also noted other development plans in the area, including a hotel scheme for the old Reserve Bank site on the corner opposite the Rose & Crown.

The rear wall of the historic pub will be incorporated into the atrium of the new tower, exposed to create direct access from the pub to the office tower.

The pub's exterior will be restored to elements apparent in 1896 after its second level was developed.

Edney said negotiations to secure a construction contractor were in hand: "We have not let the contract to build it but ... it will be built by one of the major names."

Ian Mitchell of DTZ in Wellington welcomed Edney's new tower but said Auckland already had vacant CBD floorspace and the block could exacerbate problems.

"The key issue is most of the existing floorspace doesn't suit the tenants' needs because it's older and they can't get enough space in one building to satisfy demand. From a tenant or developer point of view, the new tower will probably work well. But it will also mean there will be an even larger amount of other office space in the city which is vacant."