Multi award-winning construction and fitout company Alaska has brought their expertise to the new Craigs Investment Partners’ offices in Union Square.
Joining other blue-chip organisations such as Rabobank and AA Insurance Service Centre, BBO and Baker Tilly Staples Rodway, it was important to Craigs IP that they created an office space to match the landmark building, while enhancing employee and client experience.
Alaska director Liam Osborne says the team oversaw every detail of the build portion of the project from inception to completion, and in a very short timeframe.
“It was a reasonably tight programme, with a start date just prior to Christmas, in order to get the Craigs team into the new spaces, as they had to move out of their existing office by late March.”
Liam describes the project as high-end with lots of spaces for client meetings with AV and acoustic requirements, an appealing cafeteria space positioned on the level three corner of the building and a bespoke board room and reception area.
A job of this calibre meant getting the best contractors at the right price and Alaska has experience in droves when it comes to managing premium office fitouts.
“As the main contractor, we managed the build; from obtaining pricing from all sub trades and suppliers, negotiating and letting the contracts with them when the job was awarded, and managing them throughout the programme to when we handed over the job on time to Craigs,” Liam says.
Led by Liam as the contracts manager, the project was backed up by project manager Matthew Wade running the day-to-day site management and quantity surveyor John Lillywhite controlling all the costs and awarding contracts.
With over 20 different contractors to manage, it takes the experience of a team like Alaska to execute the visionary design and architecture of this project.
Most of those contractors are based in the Waikato, including FB Hall Plumbing, Zero Fire, Feist Electrical, Van Dykes Flooring, Waikato Decorators, CM Glassware, Impact Tiling.
“I’d say 70 per cent of the contractors on this job are Waikato based,” he says.
The construction industry is always fraught with challenges, and Liam says they had to work around some of their Auckland-based contractors who were impacted by the recent floods.
Alaska is not new to working in the Waikato, with a number of quality builds and fitouts in their portfolio, including Tainui Group Holdings projects, Cambridge Police Hub new build, Hancocks Forestry Management’s new Tokoroa office build, IR Fitout in Hamilton, KMPG offices and CTEK.
“We’ve been very active in Hamilton and the wider Waikato over the past ten years.”
Building relationships and connections is an important part of being active in the industry for the 17 years Alaska has been operating.
“There are projects that have presented opportunities, as well as some repeat clients. We have quite a lot of repeat business in the Waikato,” Liam says.
Kiwi owned and operated with offices in Auckland, Hamilton, Tauranga, Wellington, Christchurch, Queenstown and Invercargill, Alaska has been delivering excellence since 2006.
Alaska is known for their ‘user friendly’ approach and delivering on time, on budget, every time.
