Tainui Group Holdings to build big Hamilton base for ACC in city centre

The 8500sq m building on the corner of Collingwood and Tristram Sts will house ACC's 650 Hamilton staff. Photo / Supplied

Hotel and property developer Tainui Group Holdings is to build a $50 million-plus office complex for ACC in Hamilton.

The commercial arm of Waikato-Tainui will own the four-storey, three-pavilion complex in Hamilton's CBD, leasing it to ACC for 15 years with further rights of renewal.

The development of 8500sq m of office space on a carpark site on the corner of Collingwood and Tristram Sts will house ACC's 650 Hamilton staff, currently working in three Waikato locations. About 18 per cent of ACC's total staff work in Hamilton.

Building will start in the last quarter of this year with a target finish date of October 2022, said TGH chief executive Chris Joblin. It will be TGH's first big development inside Hamilton's CBD and confirmed its commitment to the city, he said.

TGH is building the 5-star Te Arikinui hotel at Auckland airport in a joint venture with the airport company. The hotel is rising alongside the Novotel hotel, another TGH-Auckland airport joint venture opened in 2011 in association with Accor.

The Hamilton-based company has developed two hotels in that city and the major Te Rapa shopping precincts, The Base and Te Awa. It sold half the 31-hectare retail complex to Kiwi Property in 2016. It is currently developing a 480ha inland port and industrial and manufacturing park at Ruakura.

TGH is the largest landowner in the Hamilton CBD.

The new ACC complex will rise on land returned to Waikato-Tainui in 1995 as part of a Treaty of Waitangi settlement. On behalf of the tribe, TGH owns the ground leases on many Waikato landmarks, including Waikato University, Wintec, the Huntly power station and CBD retail precinct Centreplace.

The new ACC complex will have a 4.5 star green rating, more than 50 car parks and multiple charging stations for electric vehicles, including scooters and bikes. Ground floor retail and food and beverage outlets are in the plan.

ACC chief executive Scott Pickering said the build was the next step in a partnership formed with TGH in 2014.

Hamilton was an important business hub for ACC's operations and offered the agency's full range of services. Many of the staff there had national responsibilities, Pickering said.

Joblin said TGH's rate of return on the ACC complex investment was commercially sensitive but was in line with the market and the size and complexity of the building.