BNZ Quay Park staff moving to Deloitte Centre, Queen St in tenant merry-go-round

Hundreds of BNZ staff will leave Auckland’s Quay Park for the bank’s headquarters at 80 Queen St in the CBD next year in a new leasing deal by Colliers International.

The latest Auckland office tenant merry-go-round follows a Deloitte move announced this week that it would vacate the Deloitte Centre on Queen St.

That will allow the BNZ to expand its presence in the building which it has occupied since it was finished but where it didn’t have naming rights.

BNZ Quay Park operations, 30 Mahuhu Cres, will shift to the Deloitte Centre, leasing 21,000sq m of floor space in the blue tower on a city block between Queen St, Shortland St, Jean Batten Pl and Fort St.

BNZ has also bought the building’s naming rights from 2024 once Deloitte leaves for Precinct Properties NZ’s One Queen St.

Deloitte also has the naming rights to One Queen St where Bell Gully is also going, leaving Kiwi Property’s Vero Centre on Shortland St.

One Queen St is the ex-HSBC Tower facing Quay St opposite the ferry building. That building beside the new PwC Tower is undergoing a $200 million refurbishment in a contract awarded to LT McGuinness.

To add to the merry-go-round, the ex-PwC Tower at 188 Quay St is now called the HSBC Tower.

BNZ chief executive Angie Mentis said: “We recognise the value in having all of our team together at one site and this move will create a collaborative and dynamic workspace for colleagues and customers.

“It mirrors the approach we are taking in Wellington with 1 Whitmore St, where we will have all of our city colleagues together in a modern environment, offering a hybrid mix of working from home and the office.

“We will be investing significantly in the fit-out to deliver a vibrant workspace that accounts for the increased flexibility in how our people work and our use of digital tools,” she said.

Rob Bird, Colliers International’s national office leasing director, said he worked with the bank and the 80 Queen St’s owner, Tim Glasson, to lease the space.

The Deloitte Centre has been owned by a company owned by Christchurch retailer and property investor and developer Tim Glasson for more than a decade.

Glasson said today he was pleased to keep the bank as the major building tenant and lease it more space.

“BNZ’s commitment to 21,000sq m at 80 Queen St shows there is an increasing demand from businesses to have more quality space in a time where there is much debate over the future of centralised offices.

“Collaborating to undertake the new high quality fit-out and refurbishment of the building and amenities will help create a multi-use space, something we are also seeing more demand for. It’s a positive step for the future of Auckland’s CBD and reaffirming Queen St as the commercial corridor of the city,” Glasson said.

Germans got consent to buy the Quay Park building near the waterfront which the BNZ will vacate next year.

In 2007, German investor HIH Global Invest GmbH won consent to buy 30 Mahuhu Cres from Manson Buildings. It also bought 8 Tangihua St nearby in the two-building $156m deal.

Property records show the land at 30-32 Mahuhu Cres is owned by Whai Rawa Railway Lands, part of the giant Ngāti Whātua Ōrakei Whai Rawa property business which owns many hectares of Quay Park as part of its Treaty of Waitangi settlement.

The land and building are held by separate entities.

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