One of the few property companies prepared to buy historic or character buildings to refurbish for another 100 years usage, has purchased the Textile Centre in Parnell.
The Textile Centre was sold to Phillimore Properties by Bruce Whillans, of Ray White Auckland Commercial who negotiated the deal directly between the vendor and Phillimore. The price paid remains undisclosed but Phillimore say it was less than the property’s $40 million valuation a year ago. Whillans says that Phillimore’s interest in character buildings is what drove the sale through, and there are early concept plans for the Textile Centre’s refurbishment, but they it will take the refurbishment slow to accommodate existing tenants.
Previously in the same ownership for over 25 years, the property has always enjoyed high occupancy as a result of the classic space it offers. The first buildings were constructed between 1908 and 1922 and originally used as woolstores owned by New Zealand Shipping and over the years they have been used by Federated Farmers and the Union Steam Ship Company. Originally constructed as three separate buildings the property now comprises one larger complex plus a small character brick building and an adjacent large parking building. Already having been refurbished the building currently houses EziBuy, Xero and incubator company Ice House among others, with a combined annual income in excess of $3million. Phillimore Properties’ managing director Ross Healy says they are excited about the potential of their new acquisition and already have a rough idea of what they want to achieve before actual concept plans are drawn up by their designers Tim Hay and Jeff Fearon of Fearon Hay Architects for further refurbishment of the building.
“Ross and Ken Healy and Terry Gould of Phillimore have a long history of refurbishing classic buildings, including the General Buildings on Shortland St, the Blacketts Building on Queen St and more recently, of course, the award winning refurbishment of the Imperial Buildings which runs between Queen St and Fort Lane (Louis Vuitton and Gucci). The Textile Centre can only benefit from their ownership,” he says. Their $15 million redevelopment of the Imperial Buildings saw them turn the historic downtown Auckland buildings from drab and empty into a desirable central hub offering a café and restaurant zone with desirable character offices. This won them a New Zealand Property Council heritage excellence award – while their architects (Fearon Hay) were also celebrated, picking up the New Zealand Institute of Architects’ top prize for the design.
While the Textile Centre is a very different type of complex from the Imperial, Healy says they love the style of the space, its high stud and character features, and they also love the area. Phillimore is excited about the intrinsic value in this part of Parnell and the high tenant demand that the building has always generated.
“Our current tenants need the existing large floor plates so whatever we do will be a well managed staged development. The work will be cosmetic initially.” The first thing will be to provide a more impressive entrance lobby for tenants because the current openings are somewhat confusing, he says. “We want to give the building a smarter and more defined main entry. “The building has good bones and we want to open it up and create a bit more life around the ground floor for retail. Long term, it could possibly be converted into character apartments but that option would be a long way down the track.”
As part of the work, Phillimore Properties will also be structurally upgrading the building – starting with the entrance and working their way back. They are also hoping to create a lane within the site, incorporating at least one of the huge rear cartdocks, thereby offering more interesting retail and hospitality spaces.
The history of the Textile Centre is as long as its list of tenants; more than 100 companies have occupied the building in its 100 year history with everything from wool to IT services having been sold from there. Northwood Properties purchased the sites in the 1980s to manage the newly named Textile Centre which was then occupied by tenants who were largely in the textile industry, spread across 13,850 square metres over the centre’s four floors. By 1986 the centre was fully occupied with textile tenants, including the Maurice Kain Group and Amtex on 10 year leases but 15 years later New Zealand’s textile industry had largely collapsed as cheaper goods manufactured off-shore flooded the market, the tenants didn’t renew their leases, Whillans says.
Northwood Properties set about refurbishing the complex, attracting its first advertising agency Chiat Day Mojo Advertising in a refurbishment that included an upgrade of the air-conditioning and lighting, installing fibre optic cable for data and voice services, and creating corridors and entrances into a broad range of people friendly tenancies within the almost modular building. Also provided was on-site recycling, an on-site custodian and security patrols, together with tenant services such as bicycle racks and the provision of a car parking ratio of one to every 40sq m of space leased. – The move paid off and the complex was soon fully leased to tenants who appreciated the building’s original features. Complementing the jarrah timber beams were brick walls constructed from New Zealand clay that was fired in Australian brickworks, as well as polished floors that are regularly renovated and a saw tooth roof.
The timber beams arrived in New Zealand as ballast on sailing ships. They were untied at St George’s Bay, brought ashore and used in construction many decades later. The sailing ships went to Freemans Bay and were replanked. While the sailors were waiting for their ships’ planks to be reglued they trudged up to Ponsonby for a beer and the pub earned the moniker The Gluepot.
Source: NZ Herald – See full article: Wool Store Clipped for Makeover