Vinegar Lane and the Cider Building occupy the former location of a DYC vinegar factory in the Auckland suburb of Ponsonby. The 1.3-hectare site was acquired by Progressive Enterprises in 2011 and developed as two distinct precincts: The Cider Building, and Vinegar Lane.

The Cider Building has a 4000 m² supermarket, 11 shops, 8000 m² of offices and a 5-level underground car park. Vinegar Lane has 30 freehold sections around a new laneway, with design guidelines allowing up to four-storey buildings with full site coverage.

Both precincts are protected by Pertronic F100A fire alarm control panels. The Cider Building is so big that it required two F100A panels. These networked panels monitor smoke detectors in the supermarket and commercial tenancies and the building-wide sprinkler system. They also control the evacuation system.

Residential areas in Vinegar Lane buildings have NZS 4512 Type 5 systems. Analogue addressable smoke detectors in type 5 areas trigger local alarms but do not call the brigade; a Pertronic Apartment Module in each area provides a Hush button. The type 5 system’s heat detection component is provided by the sprinkler system.

Vinegar Lane from Crummer Road, pictured at above

A single sprinkler valve set supplies all 30 buildings in Vinegar Lane. Each building has its own check valve, riser, and flow switch. The building’s F100A monitors the flow switch and the direct brigade alarm in the sprinkler valve room, and triggers the evacuation system if the sprinklers are activated.

Two Pertronic LED mimic panels on the main street frontages identify active alarms for fire fighters.

North Shore-based Fire Solutions Ltd installed the Cider Building sprinkler and alarm systems as well as the network cabling ring for the 30 Vinegar Lane sections, overseeing the interfacing of new building connections to the network as each site is developed.

Posted in Office Building, Retail, Underground Car Park, Tagged NZ - Auckland,