Robbie’s Proposal

The topic of public transportation has undoubtedly been the most widely discussed issue in Auckland’s political history. Numerous proposals have been devised to solve our transportation problems, one of the most notable proposals was from Auckland’s longest serving mayor, Sir Dove-Myer Robinson, 1959-1965 and 1968 -1980 (eighteen years). His vision for Auckland was to develop a Rapid Rail network making Rail the backbone of transport in the Auckland region, with buses connecting to train stations and feeding the local areas. In July 1973 the Labour Government agreed to fund the cost of the electrification of the Railway Network between Auckland and Papakura, and an underground rail loop from Downtown Auckland City, via the Central City to Newmarket. The proposed inner-city loop included an underground station on the Britomart site. The National Government decided in 1976 that the rapid-transport system was too costly and unjustified so they cancelled the projects.

Queen Elizabeth Square

Queen Elizabeth Square, view from Chief Post Office towards ‘wind tree’ sculpture and Quay Street (far right)

Queen Elizabeth Square with Maori Chief statue (centre)

In the late 1970’s early 1980’s ACC focused on improving main street shopping, pedestrian malls and encouraging inner-city living. The Downtown shopping complex opened in April 1975, and the City saw this as an opportunity to implement the Central Area Plans. The section of Queen Street between Quay Street and Custom Street was closed in 1976 and re-opened as QE in February 1980. The features in QE included the statue of the Maori Chief sculptures, a water fountain, planter boxes, seats and the stainless steel ‘wind-tree’ designed by Michio Ihara.

Britomart Properties

Downtown Auckland City was essentially an industrial area, and a barrier for accesses to the Waitemata Harbour. In the 1980’s when the New Zealand Ports , New Zealand Railways and New Zealand Post were deregulated this provided the opportunity for the city to spread its feet closer to the water’s edge.

The Auckland Harbour Board owned 5,000 acres of the Waitemata Harbour seabed and 400 acres of reclaimed land used for commercial operations. The AHB did not have to follow ACC planning regulations and did not pay rates because it was a public body in it’s own right. The ACC therefore had an interest in the annual income generated from the un-rated rental properties and any future planned development of the waterfront area.

In 1986, the Auckland Regional Authority (ARA) completed a comprehensive transportation review that included an ‘urgent’ upgrade for the Britomart Bus Terminal. The AHB was the principal owner of the Britomart properties and they selected Kupe Group Ltd in August 1987 to develop the area. The $1.2 billion construction included commercial, retail and hotel development around the planned upgraded Britomart Bus terminal and carpark. The stockmarket crash in 1987 lead to the demise of this Britomart proposal.

In 1989 when the AHB was disbanded, its port-realised activities were transferred to a public-listed company called Ports of Auckland Ltd (POAL). POAL was now owned 80% by ARC and 20% by the public.

The AHB’s non-port assets were transferred to the respective local authorities, often as joint holdings with ARC. Most of AHB’s properties were treated as “non-port assets”, including the AHB’s interest in properties bounded by Quay Street/ Britomart Place/Commerce Street/ Customs Street and also the properties on the southern side of Custom Street bounded by Fort Street.

(Appendix 1, more information page 59)

In 1992, the National Government passed legislation which restricted ARC’s role to that of a planning authority. ARC’s commercial assets were divested to a new organisation, Auckland Regional Services Trust (ARST). ARC’s 72.5% stake in the groundlessors interest in the downtown properties was one such commercial asset divested to ARST.

ARST’s role was to divest itself of commercial assets, in order to retire the debt mountain that had been created by ARC, in 1994 ARST sold to Council, for $48m, its 72.5% groundlessors interest in the Britomart properties. Council also received cash, which had been generated from the properties through groundrental and property sales.

The PostBank offices vacated the CPO in 1988. In 1995 ACC purchased the former CPO from NZ Post Properties for $15.5m.

This left the Council as the freehold owner of most of the area north of Customs Street (only the Endeans Building, Harbourview Building, Custom House and Mecure Hotel buildings had been freeholded) bounded by QE/ Quay Street/ Britomart Place/ Customs Street, (Note the Britomart area – carpark and bus station – was never transferred out of Council ownership as originally envisaged by Heads of Agreement). This enabled consolidation of these property interests into ACC ownership.