The site of the famous Onehunga Woollen Mills, producers of New Zealand’s iconic Princess wool blankets, Woollen Mills, is a property rich in local history.

Woollen Mills has 26 warehouses in a variety of sizes ranging from 350 m² to 1,000 m² to suit all manner of business tenants. All sites include a warehouse and office, while the road-facing sites include large floor-to-ceiling windows for increased road visibility and exterior signage options.

Designed with the needs of its occupants in mind, every warehouse features large roller doors, wide internal roading for easy truck manoeuvres, clear wayfinding signage and plenty of car parks. In addition to the front entry gates, Woollen Mills includes an additional five access points from three roads to aid the pick-up and delivery of goods. Quality and design flair are evident everywhere in these buildings, from the sturdy steel canopies, steel front gate and stylish concrete exterior.

Tall ceilings with full-height glazing and open floor plates transform the warehouses into light-filled workspaces, making them suitable for both business-to-business and consumer-facing operations.

Challenges faced in the project included:

• The contaminated site built over reclaimed land had poor ground conditions, filled with significant volumes of rubbish. The excavated material had to be disposed of to managed landfill sites.
• As-builts of existing services were incorrect in areas where there was a convolution of services on council and neighbouring land. This led to major redesign works to ensure services could be navigated and installed without any impedance to existing services.
• Of the original structures that were demolished, a portion of the brick structures were considered protected heritage structures, these were integrated into the development.

Despite these challenges, RDT Pacific’s extensive experience in the industrial sector enabled this project to benefit from the close working relationships between project stakeholders, and the finished product is of a high quality and standard.