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New Zealand’s tallest building is officially open for business

After eight years and many frustrating delays, New Zealand’s tallest building is now officially open.

The PwC Tower stands 180-metres and 41 storeys high, with 39,000sq m of office space, on top of a commercial centre that boasts 120 stores across a further 18,000sq m.

It sits at the foot of Aucklandโ€™s CBD, towering over the Waitemata Harbour.

According to Stuff.co.nz, the PwC Tower contains New Zealand’s fastest lifts, which hurtle along at eight metres a second.

โ€œI must admit itโ€™s pretty exciting going up in the lifts, certainly those on the outside where itโ€™s fully glazed and you get to look out over the city as youโ€™re travelling that fast up 180 metres,โ€ said Scott Pritchard, Chief Executive of Precinct Properties, owners and developers of the $1 billion tower.

The tower was scheduled for completion in mid-2019, before costing issues blew the timeline out. COVID-19 caused addition delays to the opening. The retail precinct at the base of the tower was opened to the public on June 11.

โ€œCertainly, in a value sense itโ€™s the biggest commercial project in New Zealand,” Mr Pritchard continued.

“Iโ€™d say as far as Iโ€™m aware itโ€™s definitely the most complex vertical construction project in New Zealand.

โ€œItโ€™s an enormous investment and, to be honest, it feels a little bit surreal at the moment because thereโ€™s a huge team that has worked on this project for eight years and itโ€™s now complete.

โ€œThe technology and the quality of the amenity and the thinking that has gone into this tower, it is world class and weโ€™ve done a huge amount of research globally and taken the best of what weโ€™ve seen and tried to instill it in this building.โ€

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Nathan Jolly

Nathan Jolly was an in-house journalist with Elite Agent. He worked with the company from July 2020 to December 2020.