Zone 6

At Westgate Zone 6, Formsteel started at the other end. With how the retailer wanted to trade, how customers needed to move, and how the owner wanted the asset to perform.

Zone 6 is the largest project in Formsteel's history. 3.24 hectares in Westgate Town Centre, five buildings and 22,122m2 of net rentable area across 39 tenancies, anchored by Kmart's largest store in New Zealand.

The relationship began with Foodie. Formsteel built Foodie Supermarket for NZ Retail Property Group, and when NZRPG showed the finished building to Kmart, what stood out was the open retail floor. Kmart wanted the same at Westgate: long spans, clean space, very little in the way.

NZRPG set the brief. Kmart brought detailed requirements for how their store needed to trade. Formsteel worked with both through design, said where the building could work harder, and engineered the structure around it.

SuperSpan™ delivered the open space both were after. Building 3 spans 48.73 metres with no internal columns at all. The Kmart building is wider again at 56.24 metres, carrying 6,700m2 of retail floor on just six columns.

For Kmart that meant almost nothing in the way. Aisles, departments, checkouts and back of house could go where their customer journey data pointed, rather than around a structural grid.

The building adapts to the retailer, rather than the retailer adapting to the building.

The same spans gave the architect room at the front door, creating a world-class entrance where natural daylight and open volume make arrival part of the experience. Here the structure served the architecture.

And because retail keeps moving, that openness keeps paying. Formats change, departments move, new ways of trading arrive. Click and Collect on Barbour Road came into the scope partway through the build and has greatly enhanced Kmart's operational offerings. Large clear floorplates give owners and tenants that same freedom long after opening day.

Designing a building this way only works if the same team carries it through. Formsteel was appointed at concept and stayed to the completed buildings, working alongside the architects through design, carrying the structure through council consent, then delivering on site with eight major subcontractors under its management: structure, roofing and cladding, interior framing, linings, plaster and paint, insulation, plumbing and doors. Design, engineering, modelling, procurement, programme, site management and health and safety all sat in one place.

Five buildings went up at once, with trades overlapping across the site. Civil works ran alongside, the neighbouring reserve brought its own environmental controls, and the town centre around it stayed open for business. Formsteel carried the programme through all of it and absorbed changes as they came.

Zone 6 is the fourth project Formsteel has delivered for NZRPG, after Foodie Supermarket, Northside Commercial Hub and the Maki Street Commercial Development. Each one has started the same way. With what the building needs to do, then the structure to suit.