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Published 19 July 2012
The Auckland Council has agreed to buy the ASB Bank Centre on the corner of Albert & Wellesley Sts (left, beside Sky Tower, as seen from the old council building) for $104 million.
The council will move in progressively after the bank moves to its new headquarters in the Wynyard Quarter next July.
Council chief executive Doug McKay said today council staff would move out of 7 buildings around the cbd but would continue to use the Town Hall. No decision has been made on the fate of the present administration building across Aotea Square from the Town Hall, which needs to be closed to remove asbestos.
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Mr McKay said refurbishing the existing building (left, above the outdoor entertainment on Aotea Square) had been costed at $93 million, and if the council returned there it would house only 450 staff, compared with up to 2400 in the ASB building.
He said the council could buy & operate the ASB building for an average $2.7 million/year less over the next 10 years, after refurbishment, than the present mix of owned & rented cbd accommodation. The council has estimated its savings will rise to $5 million/year by year 20.
Mr McKay said the council looked at leasing, and buying or leasing a new development, but the ASB opportunity was both fortuitous and good value. Apart from the bank’s move to the waterfront, building owner Brookfield Multiplex would find it hard to get a new tenant for 20,000m².
The new council headquarters will be right on one of the 3 new stations along the proposed city rail link. Mr McKay joked that the council “hasn’t received a letter, a notice of requirement” for acquisition or site use for that project, and said the possibility of having direct station access from the building hadn’t been investigated.
The first 2 building leased buildings to empty staff into the ASB at 135 Albert St will be the former Telecom building at 8 Hereford Rd and Cornell House at 360 Queen St, across the road from the Town Hall. The last will be the privately owned council building at Takapuna, where the old North Shore City Council signed up a 4-storey annex in 2008, adding 4000m² to the 8000m² it already occupied there.
Planning staff of the new council are based there. Mr McKay said it hadn’t yet been decided which staff would go where in the new building, and whether existing buildings would continue to be occupied by the same staff.
The council has short-term leases in some buildings, but a lease until 2022 at Takapuna.
The civic administration building on Aotea Square has first priority for vacating, starting at the end of next year, followed by 360 Queen St & 8 Hereford St in 2014.
The bank building has 20,000m² of office space on 27 floors, 35 levels altogether, 290 parking spaces. The bank occupies about two-thirds of it and the council will co-locate with other tenants until their leases expire.
Mr McKay said the council needed to decide in the next 6 months on the fate of its present headquarters – whether to refurbish, demolish or sell: “I could see the building being refurbished and possibly repopulated with council staff. Equally it could be a development opportunity. We haven’t done anything with this building in the analysis.”
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Attribution: Council release & briefing, story written by Bob Dey for the Bob Dey Property Report.
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