BritoMart-Auckland, NZ

Sleek and contemporary, the BritoMart project is making a stern push to redevelop the lower Auckland dockyards area. Owner/Developer Cooper & Company out of LA has Hawkins Construction spearheading the construction. Sara Ballantyne, Development Manager for Cooper & Company, & Terry Buchanan, CM for Hawkins both were great hosts for the property tour(East 1 & East 2 buildings).

The development will sit on 5.8 hectares with a 125 year ground lease, and consist of 17 heritage district buildings, along with 7 new structures being developed (of which all will be Green Star rated!). Total project cost? $210 million.

Of the buildings we saw, the train station runs directly below them, adding tremendous value. First floor retail is currently 70% pre-leased, and a 1,250 car garage is under construction caddy corner to the office space. Both buildings have rainwater harvesting systems, with waste water recycling capabilities. They also have temperature control, along with an internal stair well linking every floor openly; ultimately encouraging use of the stairs! The buildings are primarily built with structural steel and has 14 elevators.

Tenant pays: Rent + Opex + "Precinct Cost"...awesome for a landlord!

But then again, the tenants are as follows:

Westpac Bank=50% of the office space
Earnst & Young= 30% of the office space
Soutern Cross Health= 20% of the office space
= 100% PRE-LEASED with LONG TERM LEASES! *note*(Dallas average office vacancy= 20%)
12 yr leases w/ 12 yr options

Interesting enough, the top 3 floors were originally slated to be residential penthouses to be sold for $3M a pop....but since the market fell flat, they convinced Westpac to make that space their "Exec floors." And of course, since banks are doing very good now days, they agreed. Amazing...lol

Although they have leased the space now, the top 3 floors have been built as "flex space" with the ability to convert from office to resi quickly and efficiently (without having to rip much apart). An interesting fact we came across was that since Westpac wanted to blow out space on each floor after design deadlines, they will be paying for the costs to do so, AND pay for the airspace as normal square footage...TOO MUCH MONEY?

One things for sure, the Westpac CEO will be loving life from his new office and personal balcony (I am pictured above regulating and calling the subs around from atop).

G'day mates!