Central Property People Awards Finalist - Rototuna Village | Best Team

With Property Council New Zealand’s Central Property People Awards upon us, we are pleased to celebrate the nomination of Rototuna Village for the Veros Property Best Team Award, with the project team Kirkdale Investments, Form Building & Developments, and Byrne + Enright Architecture.

Rototuna Village is a new 40-hectare greenfield town centre in Hamilton’s north. The planning, design, consenting and preparation for this centre has been well considered and is almost 10 years in the making. To set the tone for the centre’s identity and its place within Hamilton’s metropolitan area, successful delivery of the first commercial building was critical to benchmark design quality, high-function, and a thriving tenant mix.

The first retail and commercial stage of Rototuna Village comprises 2,300m2 of mixed retail, hospitality, and commercial space. Stage 1 is designed to be a prominent gateway, with anchor buildings that set the tone for quality, identity, and design for the remainder of the town centre. As such, it was critical to establish a strong team with a mutual interest in delivering a project that not only looks fantastic, but also delivers a strong financial outcome.

Architects Byrne & Enright led the initial design, creating a design concept that spoke to Kirkdale’s vision. Veros were instantly drawn to the project’s ambition and vision and with the wider design and delivery team brought the buildings to life, with FORM bringing their expertise to drive the design and build programme.

The team worked closely with a range of tenants to ensure the buildings provided a seamless and successful business environment from day 1. The total of 17 tenants at completion, including the building owners Kirkdale and Byrne & Enright, are thrilled with the quality, community and thriving business environment that the project has delivered.

The project’s uniqueness required a strong and diverse team of experts, with a passion for enhancing our city, to turn Kirkdale’s vision into reality. Key project partners are outlined in the following table, noting that there were many others including sub-trades that were critical to the successful delivery of the project.

The success of the project lay in the people behind it. While each member of the team played a different role and brought their own technical discipline or expertise, a strong shared vision and collective passion to deliver a seamless and successful project stood this project apart.

Simply, the key objectives were to deliver buildings of the highest quality in this location, that were thriving and successful from day 1, and viable to deliver and hold for Kirkdale. At stake was setting the tone and the benchmark for the remaining 40 hectares of the town centre, and the team were aware of the consequences of getting this right.

The project is very different from many other suburban town centres in New Zealand, with a planning framework and vision to deliver a walkable and innovative centre that benchmarks best practice in design and delivery. The biggest challenge for the project design and delivery team was to deliver a level of innovation and quality in building design, recognising this over-investment up front, while delivering a viable project.

Byrne & Enright Architecture developed the overall concept and design for the project. The design was based on Kirkdale’s vision, developing a concept that spoke to the origins of the land as a family farm, whilst incorporating modern and sustainable materials.

The streetscape design that places high priority on pedestrians and the public realm environment, integrates the project seamlessly at ground level, creating a high-quality pedestrian experience. With dual frontage of the buildings to Borman Road and the adjacent Countdown carpark, the building design, refuse, back of house, and activated ground level provided both a design opportunity and design challenge that has been successfully delivered on.

The Veros team brought delivery experience and commercial expertise to help shape the project to be viable. The team’s strength grew as the project was shaped and guided through collaboration to a point where design quality and intent was upheld, whilst maintaining a commercial return and viable project.

Led by Lodge Commercial, the marketing campaign involved a range of market knowledge and experience, as well as innovation to ensure the vision was accurately delivered to potential occupiers. It was important to demonstrate both the high-quality of the development, and the opportunity available as an occupier in Hamilton’s newest neighbourhood centre. This included leaflets to local addresses, targeted billboard advertising, and adverts in key publications.

The sustained effort, and continual drive to market the centre ultimately resulted in the buildings being 100% leased following completion.

FORM’s project manager and site manager brought years of experience, using their leadership and expertise to manage and guide the sub-trades to remain on programme, and importantly, to uphold the desired design intent and quality. FORM bought into the concept of the project from day 1 and strived to exceed the client’s expectations.

On completion, the project was fully leased with the seamless delivery of integrated tenant fitouts of retail, hospitality, and office spaces. These businesses have taken pride in their new spaces and are expanding or establishing their businesses to leverage off the strength of this location, and a high-quality development that will be a top destination within Hamilton.

The success of the project was defined by the seamless way the diverse skill range and experience of each team member came together. The team’s ability to drive for excellence, overcome challenges together, and set collective sights on best practice, fostered the success of Rototuna Village.

The challenge with design was delivering a viable development without compromising on quality. Byrne & Enright’s design captured the essence of Kirkdale’s vision, however initial feasibility testing indicated market rents would not support a commercial outcome. The team worked through various stages of design revision and value engineering, establishing efficiencies in design and materials to enhance the financial performance. This put the project in a position to proceed through a design build delivery model.

As Stage 1 of Rototuna Village, there was always a degree of uncertainty regarding the level of demand experienced from retail and office tenants. With no proven retail spending and foot traffic counts, the developer, and the tenants both had to take a leap of faith to back the concept and vision. Despite this unproven retailing environment and risk, an early marketing campaign with Lodge Commercial, successfully secured over 70% of the buildings through pre-leases prior to construction commencing. This backing of the project gave confidence to the team that the innovative design was attractive to the market with strong buy-in to the vision.

With the complex nature of the project, the construction phase posed several significant challenges for the team. At each stage there was strong team involvement to resolve and forge a path forward. The design team alongside FORM’s construction managers worked collaboratively to understand issues and determine solutions that benefitted the project. This was challenging in situations that did not benefit one party, however the team approach always resulted in a practical solution.

The programme was impacted by COVID-19. Construction stopped immediately on-site during the lockdown period of April and May 2020. Upon reopening, the operating environment limits and reduced work site requirements slowed the construction progress. This caused a downstream ripple effect for workforce and materials from different regions of New Zealand creating various supply chain constraints for materials that required a collaborative resolution. While this period posed many challenges, it also brought out the team’s best qualities including resilience, problem-solving, and innovation.

The vision was to deliver an outstanding project that set the tone of Rototuna Village, creating commercial spaces for local businesses to thrive, and to provide a long-term investment that Kirkdale can be proud of. Through a collaborative, innovative team, this result has been achieved, if not exceeded.

Construction was completed with a programme delay only attributable to COVID-19 lockdowns. The design intent has been realised with Byrne & Enright and FORM delivering high-quality buildings, where the finishing has exceeded expectations. Two months following practical completion, the building was 100% leased, with Lodge Commercial establishing a strong mix of complementary occupiers who now call Rototuna Village home. Kirkdale’s return on investment now far exceeds preliminary forecasts and will now remain an asset for their future generations.

Rototuna Village is a comprehensively design masterplanned development bringing together a mix of local businesses and in the true sense of the words, is a place where the community of Rototuna can live work and play.