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NZ Herald
25-07-2025
- Business
- NZ Herald
New World Pt Chevalier to open next to derelict building and abandoned tyre site
Next door is a third of a hectare ex-Magnum Motors corner site, also fronting 8 Parr Rd North but looking in very poor shape. New World Pt Chevalier, Auckland nearing completion. 22 July 2025 New Zealand Herald photograph by Jason Dorday The contrast between the two sites could hardly be greater. How did such a situation arise and what do council and local board people say about it? The state-of-the-art supermarket is aiming to draw tens of thousands of shoppers weekly in the suburb, which currently only has a small Woolworths. The unsightly empty site next door is owned by New Zealand-registered company Hobson One. Its director is Zhengzheng Guo of Remuera. Derelict buildings in front of and around the New World Pt Chevalier which is planned to open in August. Photo / Jason Dorday He has applied for resource consent for apartments to be built in blocks beside the New World. But he is yet to succeed. 'An application was lodged in December 2024 for a three-storey mixed-use building - retail and residential,' a council spokesman said. The application was now on hold, awaiting further information, the spokesman said. Advertising showed he did try to sell the site two years ago, before downscaling plans. In June 2023, he advertised it with Bayleys. 1150-1160 Great North Rd, Pt Chevalier, Auckland, outlined in red. This was in 2023 when Bayleys' agents were marketing the property for sale. Since then, the New World Pt Chevalier has been built on the ex-RSA site next door (above the red line). Photo / Bayleys The big lot was marketed as a development site, with a 177-unit resource consent. Bayleys agents Gerald Rundle and Marty van Barneveld marketed it but were unsuccessful in selling it. Derelict buildings in front of and around the New World Pt Chevalier which is planned to open in August. Photo / Jason Dorday 'The development potential of the site under the zoning has been greatly enhanced by an approved Resource Consent for an eight-level [including basement] development of 177 apartments and three ground-level commercial units over approximately 18,000sq m according to the consented plans,' Bayleys said. Construction progresses at the site of the new New World Pt Chevalier on Great North Rd, Auckland. The store, developed by Foodstuffs North Island and designed by Wingate Architects, is due to open later this year. Photo / Jason Dorday The new supermarket has been set back from the street, with a partly covered walkway now being finished beside the Kumho Tyres building, short-stay parking out the front and a big underground basement for parking. Auckland Council documents describe buildings on the Hobson One site: '1150 and 1158 Great North Rd are occupied by a vehicle workshop, tyre shop and paint and panel beaters. Plans for apartments on Great North Rd beside the new $73 million New World Pt Chevalier. Photo / Auckland Council consent documents 'Built development within these lots comprises two-level industrial style buildings located centrally with a canopy extending over the forecourt in front, a double garage and electrical transformer at the rear of number 1150, and concrete/asphalt driveway and parking areas across the remainder of the land,' the council document says. A larger scheme was once planned. Consent was granted non-notified on February 20, 2023, for an eight-storey apartment block, with basement parking, three commercial units and 177 dwellings, the council noted. Derelict buildings in front of and around the New World Pt Chevalier which is planned to open in August. 22 July 2025 New Zealand Herald photograph by Jason Dorday But the market changed and now only about 50 units are planned. 'Given the changing demands of the market, the applicant wishes to achieve a similar development in terms of land use, albeit on a much smaller scale in terms of the height of the built form, but also notably the depth and volume of earthworks required will be significantly less,' the council document said. Kendyl Smith, chair of the Albert-Eden Local Board, said the site was private property which the council had boarded off. Smith was aware of safety and crime concerns. New World Pt Chevalier, Auckland nearing completion. Photo / Jason Dorday 'The council is actively working to maintain safety in and around this site, which involves working with the property owner to determine the next steps,' Smith said. The board had completed a review of crime prevention through environmental design in the wider area, Smith said. That identified safety-related improvements for Pt Chevalier. New World Pt Chevalier, Auckland nearing completion. Photo / Jason Dorday 'There are also ongoing patrols of the area from the council's community safety wardens, working with NZ Police,' Smith said. 'We're also looking forward to the new modular library, with full library services, joining the town square this October.' The New World opening would provide a welcome addition for locals and for the wider village, Smith said. Kāinga Ora has also developed new social housing in the town centre. This shows work on the block, long since finished. These are the new state homes in Pt Chevalier. Photo / Michael Craig On the corner of Great North Rd and Pt Chevalier Rd, a block of apartments was imported fully built from China. That is for people aged 55-plus moving into or from existing state housing. Kāinga Ora contracted Tawera Group and Teak Construction on this job. They assembled the 61-unit block of single-bedroom new units. Kāinga Ora said the modular homes were all one-bedroom apartments to cater for high demand for those types of places. They are single, factory-built modules. Last year, when New World Pt Chevalier was being built, and the home next door. Photo / Jason Dorday A man in his 90s is yet to find a buyer for his home next to the new supermarket. The Herald reported last year on 12 Parr Rd North. That has been in Albert John Andrews' family for 70 years. Foodstuffs said last year it had been working closely with the family, other neighbours and the community throughout the build process. Anne Gibson has been the Herald's property editor for 25 years, written books and covered property extensively here and overseas.
NZ Herald
15-07-2025
- General
- NZ Herald
Is this the future for social housing? Simon Wilson
A community vegetable garden in Mt Roskill. Photo / Jason Dorday Meanwhile, there's a community garden in Mt Roskill with row-upon-row of astonishingly large, healthy, luscious-looking vegetables. A local church made it happen, supported by the council, and it's tempting to say the spirit moves in that soil. Certainly, it speaks volumes about the strength of the local community. Right opposite, though, there's an empty overgrown field, closed off from the public by high wire fences. There used to be a few state houses there, but Kāinga Ora cleared them away so it could build anew. Nearby, there are other empty patches of land and clusters of empty houses, one of them burned out, most of them graffitied, all of them boarded up. Under Government instruction, last month Kāinga Ora stopped the development of 212 housing projects that would have delivered 3479 new homes. It will sell the land and 'write down' up to $220 million, that being the amount already spent on new infrastructure and other project development work. Of those 3479 cancelled homes, 1527 would have been in Auckland. They include the abandoned sites near the vege garden in Mt Roskill, where attractive town housing was planned. Elsewhere in the suburb there are some substantial Kāinga Ora developments that were already finished or too far advanced to be stopped. But big projects in earlier stages weren't so lucky. And in the streets near that vege garden, there are no new apartment blocks, no Kāinga Ora two or three-storey townhouse walk-ups, no new anything. No plans for anything. Just empty lots, broken homes and what's left of the state housing from the old days. This is land that's been abandoned. Right in the middle of a housing crisis and right in the middle of a suburb that desperately needs more housing. An abandoned houses on Wainwright Ave, Mt Roskill. Photograph / Jason Dorday When the Government talks about bringing rigour and fiscal responsibility and good planning to Kāinga Ora and other parts of the urban development ecosystem, this is what it means. So much has been stopped. So little is happening. And when, or if, it does, those Rotorua homes reveal there's a real risk they'll build cheap and ugly. Remember Sir Bill English in 2014? To build affordable housing, he said, 'we have to get a bit ugly'. It isn't true, as many social housing projects have proved in the years since. Kāinga Ora has created designs that homeowners can be proud of, with Homestar 6 standards of heating, insulation and design, and these things have raised the bar for the entire industry. Caroline McDowall, general manager of the housing delivery group at Kāinga Ora, says the agency is still committed to 'warm, dry and quality homes', but delivered in 'the most cost-effective and efficient way'. If only that's all it was. These new homes appear to abandon so much of what made the earlier homes appealing. English has become the eminence grise behind the Government's approach to social housing. In my view, his mission - since first proposing to Bishop in late 2023 that he review Kāinga Ora - has been to get the Government out of social housing construction and to make ugly okay. The cornerstone of that has been to insist that Kāinga Ora was wasting money and too deeply in debt to be functional. The agency contested that, arguing it showed a misunderstanding of how it managed its balance sheet, but to no avail. 'These reviews were essential to ensuring we only progress new housing projects that make commercial sense and that we sell land which is surplus to our requirements so we can get on a more financially sustainable footing,' said Matt Crockett, the agency's new chief executive. Commercial sense? How's that measured? And what about all the other things that make sense? When Kāinga Ora began to redevelop these streets, it moved the existing tenants out of their homes and rehoused them in other parts of town, with a promise they would be able to return to new homes that were warm and dry. A vacant lot fenced off on O'Donnell St, Mt Roskill. Photo / Jason Dorday At a community meeting in the suburb one rainy night last week, I heard speaker after speaker, including local high school kids, talking about what this meant. The tenants kept their kids in their local Mt Roskill schools, despite the inconveniences this created. The schools themselves have had to cope with the uncertainty. At one of them, Wesley Intermediate, 80% of the roll now lives out-of-zone. But because the new houses won't be built, the school's entire future is threatened. Builders and everyone else in the construction industry have lost big parts of their livelihood. The local Bunnings might have made a bit of money selling plywood for the old houses to be boarded up with, but that hardly makes up for the lost opportunity of abandoned new builds. Sports clubs lose players, all the other local services and clubs and facilities lose some of their customers, some of their volunteers, some of their members, some of their glue. Empty sections and boarded-up houses invite crime and makes the streets less safe. In so many ways, gaps in the street where there should be homes with people living in them leave gaps in the community too. Bishop likes to say Kāinga Ora's main role is to be a landlord. But that's trivial. The housing agency wasn't just building houses and collecting rents, it was helping to build communities. Bishop and his associate minister, Tama Potaka, also like to say the Housing Register waiting lists are down and so are the lists of those needing emergency accommodation. But they don't know where many of the people who used to be on those lists have gone. Potaka says that's 'not our responsibility'. They do know that while 1527 Auckland new builds have been abandoned, there are 795 individuals and families in Auckland on the Ministry of Social Development's Housing Register, all of them waiting desperately for a home. They do know, because community groups keep telling them, that many more people want to get on those lists but are being turned away. They do know the number of people living in cars is growing again. Why is this happening? To save money, of course, but it's not just that. Those abandoned sites will be sold, as Crockett says. They'll be an attractive proposition for the private sector, especially where the new pipes and cabling and other infrastructure have already been installed. And double-especially now the Government is removing some of the quality standards for new builds that Kāinga Ora helped pioneer. Will those Rotorua prototypes become the new normal? A new social housing model in Rotorua, July 2025. And when the Government decides to buy some new builds, to maintain some semblance of credibility in the social-housing sector, the developers will be well placed to sell. How's that for an unvirtuous circle. Why does this still need saying? Warm, dry, safe homes are the foundation of a functioning society. They allow people to be healthier, attend school more, get jobs and keep them, and become part of a community-minded neighbourhood. And to not give in to rage or despair or constant exclusion, but instead to grow their own self-respect and have dreams for themselves and their kids. To plant vegetables. A community vegetable garden in Mt Roskill. Photo / Jason Dorday Good social housing is a far better investment than prisons. But the Government has consistently refused to link crime to its causes and bluntly says it isn't worried about the cost of locking more people up. Bishop is doing some good things with housing density in middle-class areas and with transport-focused development. But when it comes to the working class and poorer parts of town, it's as if he's never heard about the industrial revolution. Cities grew fast in the 19th century and they needed more housing. No one cared what it was like. No one thought about the values of community. The private sector built slums. We're staring at that again. Why don't we call this criminal? It should be.
NZ Herald
27-06-2025
- Entertainment
- NZ Herald
Building worlds through music
Arli Liberman is an Auckland-based composer who, among other things, scores sporting events. Video \ Jason Dorday
NZ Herald
18-06-2025
- Entertainment
- NZ Herald
Wildest Dish, live cook-off
Wildest Dish, live cook-off at the final judging session for the Monteith's Wild Food Challenge in Auckland. Video \ Jason Dorday
NZ Herald
09-06-2025
- Business
- NZ Herald
$120m Wiri sale; Ryman's sinking village buildings; Former business boss Michael Barnett opposes Bay of Islands marina
Goldfinch was the sole agent on the sale. Auckland Council's rates records show the 9.2ha property, valued at $128.9m, has a 6100sq m building on it. Goldfinch said the sale reinforced the resilience of the industrial sector. The giant warehouse is leased to a number of tenants. ESR plans to demolish it and realise the site's potential. Goldfinch said redevelopment of the site was being planned in two stages over the next two to three years. It's not the only big industrial sector deal to get over the line of late. Last month, Goodman Property Trust revealed the sale of 28% of its East Tāmaki Highbrook estate to Goodman Group and Mercer for $580m. That was announced on May 29. Highbrook, the giant business park in Auckland. Photo / Jason Dorday In the inner city, Precinct Properties plans to sell its InterContinental Auckland to Singaporeans for $180m. That was announced in March. CBRE last month listed the largest buildings being developed in Auckland. James Kirkpatrick Group headed by James Kirkpatrick jnr has Auckland's largest new warehouse and logistics project under construction. That is a 65,000sq m South Auckland development of a number of separate buildings at Wiri that is expected to be worth $1 billion on completion. Ryman's sinking village buildings Ryman Healthcare is not just fixing the main building at its Edmund Hillary hub in Remuera. In its full-year results out last month, the company disclosed that the sinking problem may be more widely spread. The retirement village was built on an ex-rubbish dump and landfill. The Shackleton apartments, the village centre, the rest home and Aoraki Hospital were lifted in a job undertaken by Mainmark. 'The group has undertaken re-levelling works of the main building and one of the apartment buildings,' consolidated financial statements to March 31, 2025 said. That had cost approximately $8m. The Edmund Hillary Retirement Village, part of the Ryman portfolio. Ryman is monitoring ongoing settlement at its village and re-levelling works are likely to also be required at various other buildings in the future, it said. Some people say they are happy at the village, while others were concerned the main building had been shut for so long and have complained. Ryman is also assessing other villages for seismic risks, citing those particularly near the Hikurangi fault line. None of the villages are 'earthquake-prone' and independent experts confirmed there were no life-threatening safety concerns nor any need to vacate buildings, the company said. Naomi James, chief executive of Ryman Healthcare. However, known seismic issues could cost $30m to $35m to fix. On a separate topic, Ryman buyers are being charged in a different way to how they previously were. CEO Naomi James said Ryman no longer offered residents here and in Australia a 20% deferred management fee. This is the portion the business keeps when a resident leaves or dies. Instead, the fee is now 25% or 30%. Earlier this year: no entry to the main reception area of Ryman Healthcare's Edmund Hillary Village in Remuera. But James clarified this was not linked to weekly payments. Whether people paid 25% or 30% depended on how much they paid for their licence to occupy, she said. Out of all the retirement village operators, Ryman had offered the best deal financially for many years. But it has undergone a number of changes, including raising $1.9b capital. Marina fast-tracking opposition He was the Auckland Business Chamber CEO for more than 30 years and recognised as the voice of business in the city, but now he's opposing a Bay of Islands marina proposal. Plans for a new Bay of Islands marina by Azuma and Hoppers. Fast-tracking is sought for the plans. Photo / application document Michael Barnett is against the Waipiro Bay marina, saying he has a connection with the area because he owned property in the Bay of Islands in the mid-eighties, initially in Parekura Bay and then at Kororāreka Russell. Barnett particularly objects to the possibility of the marina being fast-tracked. Speaking on behalf of the Bay of Islands Preservation Society, he said the Fast-Track Approvals Act was intended to streamline infrastructure, housing and development projects with significant regional and national benefits. Bay of Islands hapū and community members opposed to a 250-berth marina near Kororāreka Russell going through the fast-track process make their feelings known outside a Far North District Council meeting. 'It is hard to see that this project satisfies any of these criteria,' Barnett said. Companies owned by multimillionaire businessmen Craig Heatley and Leigh Hopper have proposed the scheme. Heatley's Azuma Property and Hopper's Hopper Developments want to build the 200 to 250-berth marina. It is opposed by Ngāti Kuta, Patukeha and Far North Mayor Moko Tepania. Ministry for the Environment fast-tracking has been sought, citing several points in favour including boosting infrastructure and employment. An Azuma director and shareholder, Kallam Brown, said fast-tracking could take years off the process. Michael Barnett is against fast-tracking for the new marina plans. Barnett said half of prospective berth owners were likely to live elsewhere and he cited extensive capacity existing in nearby marinas. On May 5, Auckland and Northland had 246 berths available, Barnett said. He questioned how much of the facility's construction would be completed by regional firms rather than by generally larger and more experienced Auckland-based firms. The marina's proposed location didn't fit with regional strategies, which seek to concentrate most future growth in and around the more accessible and established locations of Ōpua and Kerikeri, Barnett said. In its defence, the application said the marina is projected to boost the local economy. 'The Waipiro Marina has been assessed to have a total economic impact of $177.9m to $218.8m in value-added GDP and support approximately 137 to 148 fulltime-equivalent jobs over a 30 year period,' the application for fast-tracking said. Anne Gibson has been the Herald's property editor for 25 years, written books and covered property extensively here and overseas.
