Matthew Bai
This Week in Planning: Commercial Bay in the News
This past week has seen major announcements relating to Auckland’s Commercial Bay, 800 new homes proposed for South Auckland, and updates to Tauranga’s Bella Vista Situation. Also in the news, we have differing opinions relating to Mission Bay’s proposed Mixed-Use development, and updates to Wynyard Quarter.
Commercial Bay Announcements:
Precinct Properties chief executive Scott Pritchard and InterContinental Hotel Group Australasian senior development director Abhijay Sandilya have just jointly announced a new 244 room hotel for the 19 level HSBC building. According to the press release, construction will be undertaken by LT McGuinness at a cost of approximately $300M (NZD), start in 2020, with a proposed opening date of 2022.
The development will also contain 8,700 sqm of office, and a rooftop hospitality venue which will be open to the public, spanning around 500 sqm. An operator is yet to be chosen.
These announcements come as the opening date for Commercial Bay’s existing developments continue to be delayed, due to resourcing issues with the main contractor, Fletcher Construction. According to Pritchard, while the delays are disappointing, his company is protected from any loss of income due to contractual agreements between the developer and construction company.
The updated opening date has been pushed back to the end of Q1 2019. This is against the original deadline of late 2018 for opening of the retail component. As a result of the delays, tenants will miss out on 2018’s lucrative holiday shopping season.
Render showing the new hotel and retail at Commercial Bay
South Auckland Housing Announcement:
A consortium led by one of New Zealand’s largest residential construction companies, Classic Builders, is planning to build up to 800 new houses in South Auckland’s Ramarama and Drury area. More than half will be in the affordable price range.
Peter Cooney owner of Classic said his Classic Developments and fellow house builder Universal Homes would build the places of which 60 per cent would be in the affordable $550,000 to $650,000 range.
“The 50ha site is zoned residential. Earthworks have started and we’re just about to lodge the resource consent application,” he said of the land beside the offramp from the Southern Motorway or State Highway 1 at the Ramarama turnoff. Classic bought the site from the Stevenson family, Cooney said. The site has previously been farmland.
“The land almost runs adjacent to the motorway,” Cooney said of the site, 37km from Auckland’s CBD.
The houses would be from 120 sqm to 180 sqm, and 80 per cent would be stand-alone, with the rest terraced places, he said.
Bella Vista Update:
Tauranga City Council says it is taking legal action against people involved in the failed Bella Vista development. The council said in a statement that the “charges relate to non-compliance with the Building Act and were served on the parties today”.
Homeowners in the Lakes development were evicted in March due to council concerns about the construction and inspection of the homes.
Earlier this month, 21 homeowners said they intend to take the council to court seeking a larger payout than has already been offered. Homeowner Sarsha Tyrell told media the council offered to purchase the homes for the same price the owners paid for them up to nearly three years ago, which would “essentially, leave many of us in a situation where we would not be able to re-home ourselves in this market and strip us of an opportunity to potentially own a home again”.
“What we are asking is to be restored to the position that we would have been in had the council properly carried out the work that we trusted them to do like any of you would,” she said.
The council last month said it considered the offer a fair and reasonable approach to make sure homeowners are compensated for the amounts that they have spent through this process. It included an additional amount to reflect the emotional toll the ordeal had taken, the council said.
Mission Bay Mixed-Use Building Update:
Last week we reported that Auckland’s Mission Bay was set to receive a new $200M (NZD) Mixed-Use Building, containing up to 100 residential units, as well as new retail and entertainment facilities.
This announcement has seen mixed opinions from different stakeholders/experts.
New Zealand Institute of Architects communications’ manager John Walsh said the Buchan Group design was conservative and pragmatic.
“It’s not art deco but it’s kind of appealing to that art deco feeling or sentiment … in architectural terms it’s not that compelling, because it’s neither/nor.
“It’s harking back to a style that belonged to a particular time and it’s probably handicapping the contemporary expression of what you could put on that corner, but it’s context. It’s happening … in an outspoken district that’s been quite determined to resist too much intensification, so it’s a softly, softly approach by a developer and their architect to not alienate a community, and get a project done.”
According to University of Auckland School of Architecture and Planning senior lecturer Bill McKay, “the development as “a bit Gold Coast” which could’ve been more sensitive by not taking over the whole site with similar-looking buildings. Incorporation of an existing building, such as the De Fontein Belgian Beer building, would’ve been welcome”.
Other commentators brought up the issue of increased onsite parking facilities, saying bus movements along Tamaki Drive could be negatively impacted due to the extra traffic generated.
Mission Bay redevelopment project director Doug Osborne said the owners sought design that was in tune with and sympathetic to the local community, of which they are part, and which “reflected the uniqueness of Mission Bay, its long history, its beautiful north-facing beach and relaxed atmosphere”.
Car park numbers were determined by council requirements for a minimum number of car parks to support the retail, and to meet minimum car park numbers required for apartment owners, Osborne said.
No additional car parks were sought.
Wynyard Quarter Updates:
Resource consent has been approved for the demolition of existing buildings and construction of six buildings on 9793 square metres of land bounded by Gaunt Street, Daldy Street, Pakenham Street West and Beaumont Street. Exceeds a number of standards, including site intensity and height controls. The applicant proposes that the permitted baseline can be taken from the existing Goodman Integrated Development Plan (IDP), an unimplemented resource consent for development site intensity and building heights.
We will update this story as further details become available.