Ghost towers get lease of life, Auckland CBD office vacancies plummetPosted by MMP News AuthorOn July 18, 2023

Don’t call them ghost towers any longer because the chief of a billionaire landlord and a research boss have cited rising numbers of workers back in Auckland’s heart.

On Monday, Precinct Properties chief executive Scott
Pritchard talked of office popularity soaring, “work from work” being the latest trend and a study of lift movement in buildings showing many of the approximately 10,000 people on two waterfront blocks returning Monday to Friday.

Gavin Read, JLL research head, backed that up, saying research his business released in May showed Auckland office block vacancies had dropped, as more people returned to work, commercial space made a comeback and more leasing deals were struck.

Last year, the Herald reported on three big blocks with many empty floors. The ex-Chorus House at 66 Wyndham St was then 59 per cent empty, the former Lumley Centre at 88 Shortland St was 30 per cent empty and the ANZ Centre on Albert St was 22 per cent empty.

But JLL’s most recent survey found 66 Wyndham only 47 per cent vacant in this year’s first quarter, the ex-Lumley Centre now called Shortland and Fort only 5 per cent vacant and the ANZ Centre on Albert St just 7 per cent vacant.

Precinct sold half the ANZ skyscraper on the Albert/Swanson corner to giant American business Invesco in a deal struck in 2018, then the other half…