Chinese company plans New Zealand's highest office building

WELLINGTON - Chinese property company New Development Group (NDG) has announced plans to build New Zealand's tallest office building in the heart of the country's biggest city, Auckland.

Mayor Len Brown on Wednesday revealed to the New Zealand Herald newspaper the plan for the 52-level, 209-meter-high skyscraper in the heart of Auckland's central business district.

NDG would build the tower, to be known as NDG Auckland Center, at a cost of NZ$350 million ($291.13 million) on the site that had been used as a carpark since the 1980s, Brown told the paper.

Auckland Council had granted resource consent for the construction, which will only be dwarfed by the 328-meter Sky Tower sightseeing platform.

A building consent was still pending.

Brown said it would be a world-class  development and a huge transformation for the city, creating hundreds of new jobs and boosting Auckland's economy.