BOOK EXTRACT: Britomart: The Story

The bank and the Global Financial Crisis

Ten years before, when Britomart was only a glint in Peter Cooper’s eye, Westpac had bought out New Zealand’s Trust Bank banks, with the exception of the ASB and TSB. Bigger and better, the company was looking to make a serious statement, to flex its new muscles in Auckland. Its then head of institutional banking David McLean, chief executive officer Anne Sherry and the management team wanted to bring their 1,200 employees together in the same space, and the Britomart proposal, which included two buildings joined by a walkway, was plenty big enough.

Westpac liked the idea of Britomart, with its views to the harbour and fabulous new train station. They were also intrigued by what Peter Cooper and his team had in mind . . . “even though the proposed site looked like a jaw with half its teeth knocked out,” says McLean.

Besides, Peter Cooper put on a good show. He brought his team along to explain how they were going to transform the site, position Takutai Square right in front of it with a fancy retail atrium below, and also tie in the Māori, Pākehā and other cultural aspects, to give the precinct a sense of history and depth. “I’d heard from Peter Cooper that his cultural aspirations for the precinct were very similar to ours, so we signed up for the lease of this half [of the building],” says McLean. “I did the lease negotiations. It was tough on both sides.

They were trying to get the thing built, we were trying to keep the cost down, make it affordable. So I took floors one to nine but not the top three.”
“At the same time Westpac was lending Peter Cooper money to develop it,” continues McLean.

“It’s commercially sensible to use some debt: leverage enables you to make more money. But when the Global Financial Crisis started in 2007, it looked for a while as though funding had all dried up. All the banks in the world came within an ace of stopping lending, especially to property developers.”

“A lot of pressure went on. There was a lot of tension. Cooper and Company needed money. We’d heard Peter’s vision but his business plan was still at the paper stage, not yet realised. I don’t think Ernst & Young had signed, the car park wasn’t built.”

“Together we worked through the whole process and saw it through, but it was a very testing time.

"The big issue was that the top two floors were to be apartments, but by then the apartment business in Auckland had collapsed. So Cooper and Company came to us to see if we could take them as offices. I said “no way, we don’t need the space, we’ve done the plans, the framework’s up. But you’ve got one chance: If you can get Peter Cooper and our CEO in New Zealand George Frazis (an Australian), in the same room . . they’re both visionary, charismatic. If Peter can talk George into it . . . ”

“They managed to make the meeting happen and Peter made his sales pitch: ‘Look George, do you really want someone sitting above you with the best views?’ George signed up.” – David McLean, Acting CEO, Westpac New Zealand

Seven years later, with the Global Financial Crisis behind them, Westpac is delighted with their decision. McLean – previously with Westpac in New York and more recently returned as interim chief executive officer – says the building works the way they expected. “It was designed around us, so there’s great flexibility. There are 2,000 people in these two buildings, some have car or bike parks, others walk, use the valet parking next door or come by train, bus and ferry.

Environmental standards are five star, air conditioning, water, plants, everything’s recycled and sustainable. Even our cleaners won a big award for the building, all our rubbish gets weighed as it comes off the floors.”

Those top three floors on the east side of the building, with their spacious decks and magnificent views way out to Waiheke Island, first destined for apartments, are particularly classy. The design by architect Richard Johnson – of Sydney-based firm Johnson Pilton Walker – and the fit-out by Jasmax Auckland, is spectacular, starting with a massive carving of Māui pulling up the North Island by the Ngāti Whātua carver, Katz Mahi. All floors are colour-themed floor by floor: starting at the bottom with the tectonic floor, up to the deep sea, foreshore and geothermal, way up to cloud and sky floors.

The East Complex buildings (the EY formerly Ernst & Young Building and the Westpac Building on Takutai Square) were both finished in April 2011, as was the Britomart Car Park Building complete with a new Les Mills luxury fitness club, and new tenants in the Atrium itself. So, when Westpac’s 1,000 staff members moved in, they more than half-filled the 1250-place car park, attacked the gym with delight, enjoyed the shops below in the Atrium on Takutai . . . and generally added to the fizz and energy of the place.

Concurrent with the completion of these new buildings, Cooper and Company refocused on refurbishing the heritage buildings. “Council-organised conservation plans were drawn up for all seventeen buildings,” says Ian Grant, who was one of four council heritage advisers for the company.

© Britomart: The Story, by Carroll du Chateau. Hardback $150. Available from WORLD Britomart. Reprinted by permission