Trustpower's new state-of-the-art headquarters in Tauranga's central business district will adopt an 'activity based work environment” when it opens in February next year.

The Durham Street new-build, which will house more than 500 members of staff, will also do away with 'personal” offices in order to help drive the future direction of the power, gas, internet and phone provider.

Trustpower's new Durham Street building has reached the internal fit-out stage. Photos: Dan Sheridan.

A tour of the building this week, involving senior Trustpower figures as well as representatives from Tauranga City Council and Priority One, revealed a hive of activity, with the internal fit-out well underway.

And as Trustpower Project Executive Karen Boyte revealed, the company are preparing themselves for a new approach to the working day to go with their multi-million dollar surroundings.

'We think it's quite a unique building,” says Karen, 'and it's been designed to allow us to embrace a new way of working.

'Activity-based working has a science behind it. It's less about plonking flash-looking furniture around the building and more about how people will move through the space and where the focus areas are.

'Part of the change journey is acknowledging the technology and the physical aspects of the building, but it's actually about how you bring people along on that journey.

'This is the way of the future. Our primary school kids learn in activity-based learning environments, so the future workforce expect to work like this.

'They won't expect to sit at a desk all day – they expect flexibility and to be able to work in different spaces in different places.”

For construction firm CBC, it's been three years since day one of the project, when work started on the metre-deep, steel-reinforced foundations which took four months to pour.

Council officials were among the group given a guided tour of the building on Thursday.

Some 18 months spent formalising leases, designs and consents were followed by the construction phase, which will work out as an 18-month build by the time the facility reaches its target completion date of February 5, 2016.

'Whilst we were building, we accommodated the needs of Trustpower,” explains CBC Managing Director Drew Beekie.

'We got everything in the right place at the right time, and that's reduced the overall costs of the design of the building and means Trustpower will get into the building sooner.”

Amongst the visiting party on Thursday was Tauranga Mayor Stuart Crosby, who believes Trustpower's arrival in the New Year will give the city's central business district a much-needed lift.

And despite admitting the area has been negatively impacted by the suburban relocation of retail outlets, he hopes the new building will spark a new wave of development.

'Trustpower coming back in to town with a staff of over 500 is a great kick-start,” says Stuart, 'and will hopefully prompt other significant businesses to come back into the city.

'There's no doubt a number of them did leave, but with the university campus now signed up and the first intake scheduled for 2019, hopefully this building will kick-start the regeneration of our CBD.

'It should be the cultural and business heart of the city, and hopefully that's what we're rapidly heading towards.”

An external view of the building in Tauranga's CBD.