After months of delays the $1 billion Commercial Bay tower is opening next week in downtown Auckland.

The centre was originally meant to open on March 28, days after the country moved into level four lockdown during the Covid-198 pandemic.

The development includes a 39,000 square-metre office tower and 18,000 square metres of retail space.

Precinct CEO Scott Pritchard told Andrew Dickens it has been an interesting project.

"No just because of the challenges around coronavirus, but also just the scale around it."

Mr Pritchard admits the current financial climate is challenging on the mall's retailers.

"We'd always been focused on getting a unique set of retailers, so not a typical set you'd find in an everyday shopping mall. Those guys are concerned naturally, so we're very focused on helping them through the next few months in particular.

"Three, four, six months time our expectation is they;'ll be up ad running again, and trading really well."