QBE Centre - 125 Queen St

125 Queen Street has a lot of history. It has an original, Category 1 Heritage Listed façade dating back to the 1840s and was redeveloped into a 28 storey tower in the 1980s. The client purchased the building with only one tenant in place; New World Metro in the basement. The remaining 28 floors and their facilities were dated and near impossible to lease. The purchasers saw an opportunity to rejuvenate the building and create a full service mixed use space that included a gym, childcare and a high end food court as well as some of the most premium office space in the city. They got through the design process and began construction with another project manager.

Early on in the construction process, things started going awry. Progress was behind schedule, there were conflicts between contractors and consultants and the developers were spending much more time on the minutiae than they should have been. Greenstone Group were brought on after construction had started to take over the Project Management and Tenancy Coordination.

When we were brought on to the project it was in disarray. Our clients had the vision to turn this building into a true Auckland landmark but lacked the time and specialist knowledge to bring many of these ideas to life. Our first job was to open up lines of communication between contractors, consultants and clients and move everyone forward toward the same goal.

The complexity of working on Queen Street meant that logistics and traffic management were a vital part of our role. Material deliveries had to be coordinated around New World’s delivery schedule due to the restricted nature of parking and access. Constant communication was also required with New World and other neighbouring businesses to ensure there was no disruption to their day to day operations.

The Heritage Listed façade required a specialist mason to bring it up to the original standard required by our clients as well as being supervised and signed off with Heritage NZ and Auckland Council. Despite the red tape required we managed to keep the cost of this process to half a million dollars. The lobby area of the building would set the tone for the rest of the building. We ensured that it was finished with the finest materials, including imported Italian marble, to bring the grandeur back to the original BNZ building.

Walking into the lobby of 125 Queen St instantly gives the intended impression. The heritage part of the building has been beautifully restored and the lobby gives the first impression our developers always intended that you are in one of Auckland’s premium commercial buildings.

Queen’s Rise, comprising of 11 eateries, opened in June 2018 and has been incredibly successful. The building itself has gotten a few industry awards from the Commercial Project Awards and the Property Council Awards.