Deloitte Centre Bringing it all together
The opening of the Deloitte Centre in January 2024 marked the culmination of the building’s stunning transformation and the final piece in the Commercial Bay precinct puzzle. Seamlessly integrated with the retail center and adjoining office towers, the Deloitte Centre provides an exceptional experience for all visitors. Our team overcame a number of unforeseen challenges to deliver a vertical mobility system worthy of this impressive project.
The highlights
Situated on the waterfront of Auckland’s beautiful Waitematā Harbour, the newly redeveloped Deloitte Centre stands out as one of the district’s swankiest office and luxury hotel buildings. But it hasn’t just been given a facelift – it’s also grown taller.
The Deloitte Centre – previously known as One Queen Street – is the fifth and final building to be completed in the Commercial Bay precinct. Connected to the Commercial Bay retail center and adjoining office buildings, the building has been described as a one-of-a-kind mixed-use development.
What makes it truly unique is the decision by Precinct Properties – the country’s largest owner and developer of premium city center real estate – to redevelop rather than rebuild. It added three floors to the existing structure, extending the building’s height to 21 stories. Besides being home to the multinational professional services firm from which it takes its name, it also houses the law firm Bell Gully and Auckland’s first 5-star Intercontinental Hotel – complete with its stunning rooftop bar, offering spectacular views of the city.
We supplied nine elevators, including three Schindler 7000s, and two Schindler 9300 escalators for the building – all coordinated by our Schindler PORT technology system to optimise traffic flow throughout the premises.
"It was a full replacement project," says Hüseyin Yalaz, our Operations Manager. His team had to remove and replace all the old elevators in the building to allow the shaft to be extended before the new vertical mobility system could be installed.
Not all plain sailing
The Deloitte Centre’s glitzy façade today projects a sense of calm that belies the numerous challenges that complicated the project’s fulfilment. "It was far from a straightforward process," says Hüseyin.
The teams on-site had already had to deal with logistical problems caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, when, in January 2023, serious flooding struck Auckland – bringing construction to a standstill.
"The floods created a huge challenge for us," says Hüseyin. Some materials and components for the elevators and escalators were damaged and had to be replaced, adding pressure to an already strained logistics situation. "We had to front-load everything before starting the installation," Hüseyin explains. "We had to make sure that every single detail was correct and ready."
Before our team could start installing the new elevators, they had to replace all the steel beams in the extended elevator shafts to ensure optimal ride quality. This meant the team had to custom-design and manufacture more than 30 steel beams to fit inside the shaft. Every single stage of the operation had to be meticulously monitored to ensure everything was up to standard.
"We brought in extra staff, internally and externally, and pulled resources from other projects," says Hüseyin. "We worked night shifts. Basically, it was ‘all hands on deck’ for three or four months to complete in time."
Jonathan Huang, one of our top ride quality experts, explains the importance of continuously testing during installation.
"What you don’t want is risk or uncertainty at the ‘moment of truth’, when you test the elevator for the first time," he says. "Quality assurance is a process. Step one, training. With the right education, you have the right execution, with the right quality standards. We follow international ISO standards for vibration and noise, and often aim to have even better values."
Hüseyin adds: "In the end, we succeeded. It was a big success."
Forward-thinking designs
One Queen Street (now known as the Deloitte Centre) was originally built in 1972 and later refurbished in 1998 as a monofunctional A-Grade office building. Its recent transformation into a mixed-use building aligns with the global trend of revitalising commercial properties to better suit the diverse and evolving needs of tenants.
We believe this world-class mixed-use development will further enhance the world-class destination we’ve created at Commercial Bay and support the attraction of visitors," says Scott Pritchard, CEO of Precinct Properties.
From this perspective, the building also taps into some of the key principles of Schindler MetaCore – our innovative solution that makes repurposing buildings more straightforward. Florian Trösch, our Head of Transit Management & Digital Solutions, explains that Schindler MetaCore presents architects, developers, and building owners with a full suite of services, products, and easily reprogrammable elevator systems. "Mixed-use developments have many advantages. One of the biggest is that reusing what we already have is the most sustainable approach to change."
By repurposing the building – instead of demolishing it and starting again from the foundation up – the Deloitte Centre was able to significantly reduce the overall construction time, as well as the environmental impact on the area.
Complementing this approach to optimising space and resources, our advanced transit management system, Schindler PORT, streamlines traffic flows throughout the building.
"Mixed-use buildings bring new challenges in terms of passenger flow," says Jason Higgins, our National Key Account Manager in New Zealand. "It’s where Schindler PORT really shines." You swipe your card, and the system knows where you're going and determines which elevator will take you there quickest. It also knows which floors you have access to. It's the smart way to make transportation more efficient and easier – seamlessly getting passengers to their destinations.
The property owner’s decision to redevelop the building rather than raze it and start again from scratch resulted in significant savings in embodied carbon throughout the project. Our vertical mobility solutions – which include new machine rooms and more efficient motors – have also contributed to an overall green upgrade to the district.
The Deloitte Centre is the first 6-star Green Star-rated mixed-use building in New Zealand. The Green Star classification is an internationally recognised rating system setting the standard for healthy, resilient, and sustainable buildings and developments.
Connecting the dots
We previously supplied 26 elevators and 20 escalators in the initial phase of the Commercial Bay development to connect horizontal and vertical transportation across the precinct’s interconnected buildings. These include six panoramic Schindler 7000 elevators in the PwC Tower – the tallest office building in the country at 180 meters. These elevators provide passengers with sweeping views of the city while operating at a remarkable speed of eight meters per second – making them the fastest elevators in New Zealand.
Throughout the Commercial Bay development, all our elevators and escalators leverage our predictive maintenance. All the units are connected online to our local Technical Operation Center (TOC), providing a constant stream of information that allows us to track their status, usage, and certain performance indicators. This system runs in the background 24/7, ensuring smooth operation at all times.