Construction is 34% complete on the the three-storey, 157-car park development, which began in October last year.
Almost 30% of the projected costings have been expended, project manager Dave McKenzie, of management company Zelko NZ Ltd, said yesterday.
"The real challenge has been the tenancy arrangements -not so much they are not interested to come in but becauseof the [negative] economic indicators," Mr McKenzie said.
One of the three international retailers was from the United Kingdom and the others were from Australia. All were expected to announce their tenancies by the end of the month.
Of the potential 21 ground-floor tenancies, five are signed up, including the internationals, and there are 16 offers under negotiation for 13 of the remaining 16 spaces.
The first and second floors have five spaces for office/restaurant tenants, he said.
"There's no guarantees it'll be 100% full on opening, but it does look like it will be at present," Mr McKenzie said.
Until October last year, he was the council's property manager. He left the DCC but was retained to manage the development project, as a consultant through Zelko.
Tenders will be put out shortly for the three food tenancies, from which six will be short-listed for selection to allow plenty of businesses the opportunity to compete for the space, he said.
The entire three-storey development will have about 5500sq m of floor space, of which the ground floor accounts for 2000sq m.
However, the car park numbers could be halved and further retail space created if there was demand for it, he said.
No loans were being used by the council for the development, which was being funded from its commercial property endowment fund, with $21 million for the building and the remaining $11 million in design and tenant fit-outs.
The project had struck minor difficulties during the $200,000 of foundation excavation work, which uncovered a peat-filled creek bed.
This had to excavated archaeologically before filling, as it appeared to have been a pre-1900 trading place.
The project was held up by a month, but otherwise was on budget and ahead of its new schedule, with shop-fits due to be done between December and the official opening in mid-March.
The building is seeking a "green star" rating.
Heat from the basalt will be used to cool and warm the building through heat exchangers, and toilet water will come from rain collection.
The standard plumbing system could be switched to take heated water from solar energy panels, but the latter would not be installed until it became economically viable, Mr McKenzie said.
