Form & Function How Commercial Bay ticks

Rosé flows at The Poni Room, one of Commercial Bay's world class restaurants.

Commercial Bay Revisited

Despite its challenges, New Zealand’s most expensive, at $NZ 1 billion, and ambitious retail, commercial and hospitality development is judged – a resounding success. By Jes Magill

No one denies it – Commercial Bay was a complex project. A rebuild of the former Downtown Shopping Centre, the redevelopment involved multiple principals and stakeholders (some in different time zones), numerous contractors and consultants, and that was before Covid-19 struck.

“Key to making it all work was a lot of collaboration and over communicating,” says Dana Johansen, partner with Public Assembly. “With projects of this scale, it’s inevitable some things won’t go to plan but with AvroKO’s global hospitality design experience, solutions were quick and creative.

“We were grateful too, working with a team of local consultants, the Architects of Record, Mitchell Addison, and kitchen consultants Wildfire. They were agile and committed to ensuring the best possible outcomes for us, as opposed to taking shortcuts or the easiest path.”

The main functional nuts and bolts that make this multi-level, CBD, mixed-purpose development tick begin at the communal loading dock. This is managed by an online booking system, implemented for the security and safety of occupiers and to efficiently manage the large amount of deliveries that come into the precinct.

Occupiers are responsible for receiving and receipting their own deliveries, which makes solid relationships and communication with suppliers critical.

Tenants and contractors shared similar site challenges at Commercial Bay. The main challenges during the fitout for Bird on a Wire was access to the CBD site, deliveries going to a central dock and working within the restrictions of an existing build.

“Compared to other openings we’ve been involved with though, this one was relatively smooth,” says Kelly Bain.

For Wildfire, it was co-ordinating lift access with other fit out companies and ensuring appliance and plant deliveries were all onsite before the building opened at 7am.

“In the planning stages, careful coordination was essential with architects and designers to get the penetrations we needed for drains, power feeds, ducting and gas supplies etc. Luckily, the teams we worked with throughout the project were fantastic.”

“It’s great to see everything up and running and considering the challenges, we are delighted we didn’t have to compromise on design,” says Andy. “We think Commercial Bay is outstanding and what’s even better is how much people are loving it.”

The entire Commercial Bay precinct has an ambition of zero waste to landfill and has sought to achieve this through collectively using compostable packaging throughout, eliminating single use plastics and the communal waste room makes it easy for tenancies to separate waste into compost, recycling and cardboard, and as a last resort, landfill. n

Auckland's hottest food and beverage concept with New York style

Ready get set…. stop!

Commercial Bay offers an abundance of world class, playful dining experiences.

It was a long time coming and hugely anticipated; the luxury $1billion waterfront retail, office and hospitality precinct that is Commercial Bay. It claims prime position in Auckland’s CBD, overlooking the Waitemata Harbour and boasts some of the hottest food and beverage concepts created anywhere in the world.

Back in mid-March and all systems were go, with tenancies preparing for a glittering opening event just days away. The finishing touches were lavishly, feverishly applied, and then … everything stopped.

What were the chances? The stellar unveiling for a development that took four years for the complete refurb, and double that for the planning; fell victim to a one in 100 year event. The global pandemic Covid-19 stops the world in its tracks, confining people to their homes and all but bringing the hospitality industry to its knees.

It was a shock too for Commercial Bay’s international tenants, AvroKO Hospitality Group (AHG), the owners, pioneers and designers of award-winning restaurants that were scheduled to open their antipodean outposts – the Poni Room, Ghost Donkey, Liquorette and soon, Saxon + Parole – that would mark AHG’s debut in New Zealand.

Fast forward three months, to June 11 and resilient Kiwis emerged joyfully back into public life, albeit Alert Level 1-style, and Commercial Bay hospo operators finally reclaimed what they love and live for – delighting and serving its customers.

Unveiling its splendour to an adoring public, excited to at last feast eyes, hearts and appetites on the best the city has to offer, Commercial Bay did not disappoint. The response was rapturous.

Precinct’s long-term vision for transformational change on Auckland’s Waterfront is brilliant and infectious, according to Dana Johanson from Public Assembly, a new hospitality and events company formed to partner with AHG and oversee their New Zealand operations.

“Precinct has been and continues to be incredibly supportive and committed to the success of Commercial Bay as a whole,” says Dana, who works alongside Public Assembly partners Paul Franich, Warren Ford (ex Depot + Federal Delicatessen) and Vinci Gin-nen (ex Savor Group).

While Commercial Bay signals AHG’s foray into the New Zealand hospitality scene, their ties with Kiwis run deep. “We’ve admired Auckland’s ever-evolving hospitality industry and abundance of world-class produce for a long time and we’re here to offer New Zealand food lovers playful dining and drinking experiences,” says AHG partner Marion Emmanuelle.

Harbour Eats' food hall caters for all tastes.

“Our executive chef Brad Farmerie is overseeing the menus for all four AHG venues. Brad has worked alongside his Kiwi mentor Peter Gordon for many years at the Sugar Club in London and AHG’s first restaurant, the NZ influenced PUBLIC in NYC.”

Farmerie says the new restaurants and bars have a uniquely New York feel with a New Zealand twist. “We’ve worked very closely with a team of

A glittering touch of light at Commercial Bay's Ghost Donkey.

Kiwi hospitality experts, employing over 150 local kitchen, bar and wait staff and supporting local suppliers to offer Kiwis food lovers the best of both worlds when they dine or drink at one of AvroKO’s venues.”

Loving that Wildfire sizzle

Known for bespoke, edgy design and premium fitouts, Wildfire Commercial Kitchens & Bars worked closely with AHG on their four head-lining Commercial Bay venues. Wildfire’s senior project manager Andy Cook says there was a lot of prestige for the local team, working with the leading international hospo brand.

“AvroKO’s cool concepts totally aligned with our business and it was an honour helping play our part in delivering a stunning selection of cool F&B outlets for New Zealand,” Andy says.

More than two years ago AvroKO started planning the Saxon + Parole project and soon after, the talented Auckland company was asked to fit-out and project manage the other three venues.

“We sourced locally made equipment to meet AvroKO’s brief, such as the authentic gas fired pizza oven at Liquorette and the bespoke gas fired grill at Saxon + Parole. Design, procurement and fit-outs for Poni Room, Ghost Donkey & Liquorette were all delivered despite delays caused by Covid-19.”

Liquorette is a self-serve cocktail bar with a master pizza chef driving the oven. Poni Room specialises in rosé the unrivalled (think self-help pours), paired with Harbour Eats sublime, Japanese-fusion platters to share. And for the best late night place to be in Auckland, Ghost Donkey is a mezcal/tequila bar with galaxy of lights festooning the ceiling and the coolest barman at your service.

Named by Esquire magazine as one of the best bars in America, Saxon + Parole is set to raise the bar even higher here when it opens soon. The 140-seat bistro flows between two levels and displays international finesse alongside Kiwi flair. “Commercial Bay hospo operators finally reclaimed what they love and live for – delighting and serving its customers.”

Harbour Eats – unrivalled food hall dining

Commercial Bay’s internationally redefined food hall on Level 2, with its intriguing laneways and soaring ceilings, showcases 28 of the country’s top, great fast food chefs and operators including Bird on a Wire, the bighearted free-range brunch, lunch and dinner rotisserie chicken restaurant.

“Opening Day exceeded our expectations and the public’s response to Commercial Bay has been so positive. This is just what the city needed,” says BOAW co-director and general manager, Kelly Bain.

“This is a smaller tenancy than our usual footprint so the most important thing for us was still achieving the right amount of seats without losing the comfort and ambience needed for a great dining experience. With seating for 60 we’re really happy with the result.”

When Bird on a Wire directors signed their tenancy two years ago, what helped clinch the deal was Commercial Bay’s primo CBD address boasting tens of thousands of office workers in walking distance, and its attraction to tourists with the international ferry terminal just over the road.

Responding to queries on Covidera restrictions, Kelly says, “Even though the numbers are down we’re feeling positive. Support from the local community and workers at PwC Tower has been wonderful.

“And we haven’t turned Uber Eats on here yet. This is a challenging site for drivers and we want to focus more on our instore customers. Uber Eats can be distracting and turn us away from our core business, and that’s the people right in front of us.”

For Inter-fridge, a long-time supplier to Commercial Bay and four other Bird on a Wire sites, nothing was a problem, priding themselves on adapting to any situation to meet clients’ needs.

“We like to work with professionals who understand the pressures we’re under, and take some of that pressure away to help make things work. We think of our suppliers more as partners,” says Kelly.

Supplying stand-up open door chillers, under bench refrigeration and outside chilled cabinets, James Holdich from Inter-fridge worked with the site’s demanding design standards and solved the high-spec challenges to ensure his client’s efforts and essence shone through.

As Hospitality Business went to print Auckland was at Level three, and the rest of the country at two. While Auckland’s re-emergence into Level 1 is still uncertain, the enthusiasm that the public has to get back to a fully operational Commercial Bay is undeniable.