Decision day nears for giant central city parking building
Auckland Council’s governing body is this month due to discuss selling the publicly-owned Downtown Car Park to a $3 billion-plus listed landlord — a plan which might include demolishing the Hobson St flyover near the Tepid Baths and creating a new bus terminal.
Discussion of the huge shakeup for the city’s downtown area was on the agenda last month.
But it was withdrawn at the last minute, surprising sale opponent and Albany councillor John Watson, who said discussions should be more open because the public had a right to know what was going on.
The topics are now due to be discussed at the October 26 governing body meeting and other developers are watching keenly, saying that with car parks usually selling for about $100,000 each, the building with more than 1900 spaces, and in such an important area, could be worth $150 million to $190m.
Watson said yesterday: “My view is that the Downtown Car Park provides a very important service to a big part of Auckland with short-stay car parking. It’s a huge asset for people coming into the city for a short while and an Auckland Transport analysis showed they came from the North Shore, the west and south”.
Another councillor, Mike Lee, also opposes the sale, and a petition went to Auckland councillors last month in an attempt to stop it going ahead. Organiser Shery Gartner said Aucklanders rely on the 1944-space carpark for convenience and reasonably-priced parking to access the Viaduct Basin, Queen St and the ferries.
NZX-listed Precinct Properties, with more than $3b of properties, and one of Aotearoa’s wealthiest Ma¯ori entities, Nga¯ti Wha¯tua O¯ ra¯kei, are so far the front-runners for any purchase of the building. Last October, Precinct said council body Eke Panuku had picked it as the preferred development partner and it was partnering with Ma¯ori.
“Precinct and Eke Panuku have now entered a period of commercial negotiations with the intent to agree and document final terms, which will remain subject to Precinct and Eke Panuku board approval,” the company said a year ago.
Since then, little has emerged. Previous council discussions have indicated that as part of a sale, a new bus terminal and demolition of the Hobson St flyover could be required.
How much a buyer might pay and precisely what their plans are has never been disclosed by the council, Precinct, Nga¯ti Wha¯tua or carpark owner Eke Panuku.
Other developers and property owners have quietly expressed concern about Precinct’s role, being shortlisted to buy the carpark when it already owns such a big stake with two waterfront blocks close by — all except the M Social hotel and car park.
A Herald request for information about what is going on with the deal, submitted via the Local Government Official Information and Meetings Act, was rejected. “Negotiations between the parties to reach a detailed agreement are ongoing and it would not be appropriate to release details at this stage. We note that, in due course, substantive information will be available,” said Amanda Pillay, privacy and official information business partner at the council.
“Decisions relating to the information that is being released to you were made by a senior manager with delegated authority from the chief executive of Eke Panuku,” said Pillay, referring to David Kennedy.
Eke Panuku chairman Paul Majurey said yesterday, “these calls are made by the responsible council officials. We do understand your whakaaro.”
Precinct chief executive Scott Pritchard addressed shareholders at last year’s annual meeting, saying the two short-listed parties were working on plans for the carpark.
In June this year in a Herald interview, Pritchard said apartments could be built in a tower planned for the site.
The carpark offering Auckland’s cheapest inner-city rates would be demolished, replaced with offices and probably a new transport terminal and residential development, he indicated then.
At the time, Pritchard was disparaging about the Downtown Car Park, saying even though it had more than 1900 spaces, he had seen signs showing 1200 of those were free at any one time, which in his opinion indicated a lack of popularity and not good use of the site.
Precinct’s HSBC Tower and its Aon offices are on the block between Lower Albert St, Quay St, Lower Hobson St and Customs St West. The M Social Auckland is also on that block.
In June 2021, the council’s planning committee discussed selling the carpark, demolishing the flyover and building a new bus terminal. The Downtown Car Park site was identified in the Auckland Council city centre masterplan as a significant one that should be redeveloped to enhance the quality and experience of this part of Auckland’s city centre waterfront, the committee noted.
High pedestrian volumes required any development to carefully consider and integrate pedestrian permeability, multimodal transport initiatives and vehicle access.
The finance and performance committee approved the sale in December 2020 and asked the Eke Panuku board to lead a competitive process to pick someone to buy and redevelop the site.
Workshops were held with the Waitemata¯ Local Board, Heart of the City and the Auckland City Centre Advisory Board.
The local board supported the proposal and recommended that a local network plan be developed to enable the demolition of the flyover and that redevelopment prioritise mixed uses, with a significant amount of affordable housing. It also recommended that the majority of the housing be primary homes.
Heart of the City supported transport outcomes in principle. It requested the inclusion of short-stay parking to ensure accessibility for all Aucklanders, at least until there was universal public transport access. It didn’t have enough information on the bus hub to comment.
The planning committee noted in 2021 that about 30,000 people come into the city centre by bus, train and ferry in the morning peak period, a number expected to more than double by 2038. Bus passengers could go from 22,000 to about 30,000-35,000 in future years.
Auckland Transport wants to reduce the impact of buses on the downtown area. No other viable sites have been identified in the vicinity of the downtown area for a bus depot, the planning committee noted.
“In respect of Downtown Car Park, a wide range of high-level concepts have been explored to accommodate the need to provide additional capacity for buses in the city centre. Two concepts have sufficient merit to explore further,” the committee said.
The first concept was to incorporate a bus facility in the Downtown Car Park site redevelopment, with the second being the removal of the Lower Hobson St flyover to create space for a bus facility, like the one in Lower Albert St.
Both concepts include an allocation of space in the redevelopment for a flexible, multimodal transport hub, the committee said.
Potential development partners would be asked to provide proposals including the bus depot, either as part of the site redevelopment or by removing the flyover and replacing it with a bus hub, the committee said.
More might be known after the October 26 meeting.
But that agenda item is expected to be held in committee. That could mean the public is excluded from seeing documents councillors get, and hearing about proposals.
Watson is left with many questions and concerns about the potential sale. “There’s been indicative numbers but it’s been something of a moving feast. I will be waiting to see what the latest figures are because there’s been jumping around. This is a significant sale that should be out in the public arena. The carpark has been returning $6m to $7m profit a year. Usually, the purchaser comes off better than the ratepayer.”