Waterfront development going public
Ratepayers will not be kept in dark about the price developers will pay for council land on Wellington’s waterfront.
However, the release of details on the sale of the Wellington City Council’s Site 9 could be limited and will not be released until after the building is erected.
The site between Wagamama restaurant and the old motorhome park, on Customhouse Quay, has been earmarked by developer Willis Bond & Co for a new five-storey office block.
The proposed block would be 21 metres high, with a basement car park and a publicly accessible ground floor.
This week, the proposal raised concerns with some councillors, who did not agree with the deal being done behind closed doors.
Yesterday, councillors voted at a city strategy committee meeting to share some details with the public.
Committee chairwoman councillor Iona Pannett asked council staff for more transparency and was supported by Wellington Mayor Justin Lester.
After talking to their lawyers, staff agreed that if the building went ahead, ‘‘high level commercial terms’’ would be publicly released.
Council staff were not entirely comfortable with it, but it was a councillor decision, Pannett said.
‘‘We could in principle agree to release the information now but I agreed [to this] in the interest of compromise and keeping some good faith with the developer.’’
The move caused much debate during the committee meeting, in which concerns were raised about how Willis Bond would feel about its business transactions being aired in public.
Concerns were raised that by agreeing, the council could see future reluctance from developers to enter into negotiations.
On Tuesday, Willis Bond managing director Mark McGuinness said it was up to the council to make decisions on sharing commercial terms.
However, at yesterday’s meeting council’s chief city planner David Chick said he had since been in contact with Willis Bond, which did not look favourably on public disclosure.
Councillor Simon Woolf said he spoke to McGuinness on Wednesday.
‘‘They have developed intellectual property that they want to see protected that will continue to give them an edge in the future … if we put out figures, people may come to the wrong conclusion.’’
Willis Bond secured a first right of refusal on Site 9 in 2014, as it worked on plans for the adjoining Site 10, which has since become the PwC Centre development.
It took years of debate and court proceedings before plans were approved for the Site 10 development, which is since believed to have been sold to a Palmerston North supermarket owner for close to $90 million.
Council documents say that, if the Site 9 resource consent applications proceed in a similar manner to those for Site 10, it is likely there would also be a direct referral for a hearing in the Environment Court.