The plans for the buildings that will replace the downtown carpark have been publicly notified giving us the first detailed glance at what is proposed for one of the biggest and best development sites in the city centre. The council agreed to sell the site to Precinct Properties for $122 million in 2023.
Called Pūmanawa Downtown West, two new towers will rise on the over the site which covers around 6,250m². The tallest of the two towers is expected to be 227m high and used for office space. This would be the second tallest structure in Auckland after the Sky Tower. At 162m tall, the second tower is no slouch either and would have 247 apartments as well as office space on the lower floors.
The towers will sit on two of three podium buildings on the site which will contain a mix of retail and hospitality, between them will sit a new public space called Te Urunga Hau (The Urban Room) which will be open to the public 24/7 and covered by a glass canopy with walkways that will into Precinct’s other buildings nearby including the AON and HSBC towers, the latter of which also includes the public walkway to Commercial Bay.
All up the development will have
- 25,028m² of Gross Floor Area (GFA) for the 247 apartments
- 79,204 m² GFA of commercial office space
- 2,033 m2 GFA of retail/ restaurant activities
There will still be carparking on the site but it will be for the development rather than open to the public. The Transport Assessment says it will have:
- 540 parking spaces, accessed from the service lane, will be provided across 5 levels of basement parking as follows.
- This will be allocated as follows
- 121 spaces will be allocated to the adjacent M Social site and are off-site parking spaces
- 247 spaces for residents
- 150 spaces for offices
- 1 carwash space for residential use
- 10 facility management spaces
- 11 drop-off spaces
- 23 tandem parking spaces will be provided, which will be allocated to the same residential unit or office tenancy
- 24 accessible parking spaces will be provided
- All parking spaces will be provided over several basement levels. The main parking basement will be accessed via an entrance from the service lane. Some of the facility management parking spaces will be accessed from the loading entrance from the service lane.
- 5 loading spaces, designed to accommodate 8.3 m trucks, are provided in a separate loading area. Access to this area is via the service lane and a servicing access, which is separated from the primary basement entrance servicing the car parking provision
- The Development provides 1,165 secure bicycle parking spaces and 64 visitor bicycle parking stands. These will be supported by 53 showers and 642 lockers to provide end-of-trip facilities
Interestingly, all of these numbers have changed since the project was first lodged with the council in August last year.
As part of the development, the pedestrian bridge across Lower Hobson St that currently connects the carpark to the old Auckland Harbour Board Workshops will be removed, as will the ramp from the carpark to Fanshawe St. Both Stuff and the Herald report that the project involves the removal of the Hobson St flyover, and it is shown removed images like the ones below, however, it’s not guaranteed to happen. They note:
The current receiving environment includes the Lower Hobson Street flyover/ ramp which results in a significant visual barrier for the Site and its surrounds. As part of the pre-application meeting discussions, Auckland Transport confirmed that it is seeking to remove this flyover in the future, however the timeframe for when this might occur has not been confirmed. As such, the following assessments of effects are assessed on the basis that the flyover is retained.
The problem is that when it comes to this kind of thing, Auckland Transport are cowards and will shy away from making a decision. Combined with the changes to both AT and Eke Panuku the risk is that some councillors and/or the Mayor will seek to relitigate the whole thing.
The demolition of the flyover has been been on a number of council plans for over a decade, with the current City Centre Masterplan saying:
The western half of this downtown west precinct retains the potential to unlock significant additional benefits in the future.
Transformation of this sub-precinct remains key to integrating the city centre downtown core with the Viaduct Harbour and Wynyard Quarter waterfront neighbourhoods to the west.
In particular, the eventual removal of the Lower Hobson Street Flyover, and long-term aspiration to redevelop the Auckland Council-owned downtown car park site, have the collective potential to add:
- greater intensity
- higher value
- more active uses
- a more engaging and connected public realm that delivers the unrealised place potential in this prime location.
If the flyover does go, it will also be important that AT get on with their plans to change how buses operate in the city centre, such as sending the busy NX1 buses to terminate on the Eastern side of the city centre.
Assuming consent is issued, the first stages of demolition are expected to start in early 2026 with the whole project taking nearly seven years to complete.
Finally, it’s worth remembering that this development along with a number of other recent developments are almost entirely due to the City Rail Link which will make it easier to get to a lot of people the city centre. Combined these developments have already seen billions invested and will positively impact our economy well into the future. So while the cost of the project may seem high, the value it has already provided is immense.
This development is super exciting and hopefully it will continue to go ahead.
Submissions on the consent are open till 18 March.
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Nice. It’s a real pity the removal of the flyover wasn’t part of the development. It would be foolish to let it remain when it could be removed during construction in the site, minimising disruption timeframe. Also, what constraints mean its removal would take so long?
The area would be better off if the development provided only parking for goods, mobility and service vehicles, bikes and scooters. To become a responsible city on climate, every new Auckland city centre development needs to be effectively parking-free for residents, tenants and visitors.
Hedi if the flyover is removed where will the NX Buses go after leaving Lower Albert St as the street west of there are a bit narrow for them .
AT’s plan (which is good) is to run the northern express buses through to somewhere around The Strand and turn them around there. It provides much better access to the city centre for passengers and removes the turnaround and timing point from the busiest parts of the city centre.
There are many options for redesigning the bus routing plans, not the least of which is for buses to continue crosstown and terminate near Quay Park. The street to the west will also become much wider once the flyover is removed.
The airport via Dominion Road would make sense to me.
A simple fix is for them to head south out of Lower Albert St and turn right into Fanshawe St where there is already a bus lane.
…how are they going to turn around though? They come *into* Lower Albert from the south side – are you proposing a roundabout or U-turn space at the Lower Albert/Quay St intersection?
The other solutions, like extending the NX1 along Customs St to Te Toangaroa, seem more practical.
And if there’s enough money, just consolidating Sturdee and Fanshawe St into one between Nelson St and Hobson St at the same time as removing the flyover would be ideal
Can go clockwise around the block instead if the flyover is removed?
@Heidi do you think it would it be possible for Auckland Council to negotiate the flyover removal as part of the sale, similar to what happened during CRL/Commercial Bay?
Too late
Great anything to get rid of that eyesore of a carpark building.
I guess still seems unclear about bus priority along Customs st. That render seems to have the usual pathetic green splotch and the service lane is still off Customs? So impeding what should be a continuous busway from Fanshawe through to lower albert? Surely with the reduced vehicles there has to be a decent bus lane.
Agree with comments that AC need to make some bold decisions here.
None of the images are showing for me. Anyone else?
Same.
Had to refresh twice for them to show .
They weren’t showing for me either but now they’ve loaded
N with the buses n cars how are they going to reconnect to the Upper Albert Street n motorway that connects when u leave downtown don’t think the council or stupid At think of that??? N if they get rid of the car park where us everyone n tourists n customers meant to park? Yes it should be free carosrking in town then if there cutting people ComMing into town to spend money
It’s a big miss to allow that much carparking in a city centre new building. Not only will it lock in a lot of driving, it’ll mean there will still be a lot of car turning movements across footpaths, making those areas less safe.
The retainment of the flyover seems like just a way to allow them to add lots of carparking and still be able to say that the traffic is managed, as shown with this sentence:
“the following assessments of effects are assessed on the basis that the flyover is retained”
If they’re assessing it based on the assumption that the flyover is retained, that’ll make it harder to remove the flyover because it’ll be “needed” to manage the traffic induced by the parking.
Agreed. Go watch outside M Social now with all the cruise ships, taxis, shuttles parked all over the footpath. U turns, etc. Not a great walking experience. And the bus stop there is for a large number of well patronised buses which get clogged up
Not sure it’s the end of the world, certainly not like say how many sky city were able to add for convention center.
Overall there’ll be a lot fewer carparks than are there now and due to how they’re been allocated, I’m guessing a lot won’t be in use every day
The earlier poor decisions to provide excessive parking at other sites mean we need to mitigate the problem now by providing next to none.
I’m interested that the number being provided is bang on what AT were originally wanting to require. As I wrote in ‘The Downtown Carpark – AT Created a Debacle” …
“Construction is likely to take three years – during which time drivers would adapt to the loss of the carpark. But AT proposed that when it reopened, it would contain 400 – 600 carparks. This decision would actively create modeshift in the wrong direction at the time of opening.”
Climate demands a much faster pace of change than allowing this level of status quo parking provision.
Will it be finished before the Seascape is the big question?
Precinct Properties is one of our good NZ companies. Major NZ shareholders include ACC, Forsyth Barr, Custodial Services, Tea Custodians, Kiwi saver and Simplicity.
I thought they were going to put a bus station in the basement . Is this not the plan anymore?
Looks a big improvement on what is currently there anyway.
The flyover/viaduct can only be removed when Council (the ratepayers) provide the funding. Pumana has to be able to work with or without the flyover.
Plenty of thought is going into how bus services can be unimpeded, throughout construction and including changes to services during the 4 years of work.
At the time the councillors were considering offering the property up for development, the only details AT provided about “management during construction” were about managing parking.
Good to hear they’re working through the metro requirements now.
I wonder if anyone is more planning the management to prioritise safety, directness and amenity for all ages walking and cycling during construction. It is the kind of focus both the Safety Review and the TERP requires.
Of course.
I hope they are planning for the chaos in Customs Street once the flyover is removed. Traffic between the east and west has to go somewhere, and not everyone wants to detour up Hobson Street and try their luck in the Strand just to reach Spark Arena or the waterfront beaches.
Flyover only goes up. There’s only one traffic lane from quay street leading to it. Can replace it with one counterflow lane on sturdee street if you’re really worried. It will be fine.
I live about a 15 minute drive (off peak) from the city, and I normally use public transport to get there. However, there are times I will drive and park at the Downtown carpark – usually if I’m catching a very early ferry or if I’m out in the Viaduct in the evening. Not all of us have a direct bus to the downtown area, and if on my own I don’t feel safe walking around the city at night to catch a bus in the middle of town. The City Rail Link will help, however not feasible for all trips. Sadly after the change I will be less likely to go into the Viaduct – unless they revamp a few bus routes so I can go direct to downtown on a bus and provide a regular service.
I hope they at least wait until the CRL is operational (7 days per week) before starting the demolition as this will help make some trips more feasible.
There are ten other public carparking buildings within 300m of the downtown one.
Take your pick?
The ones I’ve previously checked out were significantly more expensive – I can normally park in Downtown for about $10. And 300m might not be far to you but I also have a physical disability.
Take a taxi if you’re so worried. Or don’t go.
I watch my money, so would generally not pay for a taxi/uber. In general I would just not go. Time will tell if others feel the same way and business suffers.
In addition to the previous 2 comments, the new area should be way more friendly and accessible than the old dodgy-feeling car park.
Sadly my bus stop is a 15 minute walk away, so less accessible for getting to that part of town. I use the bus for about 80% of my trips into town, but just drive for those it doesn’t work for.
But what will happen to Monsoon Poon???
Relocate possibly into the commerical bay food court if there space like they did with some of the downtown shopping tennets when that was demod for commerical bay
total *ite.
The new age 2019 square look – yuk
This will be good for Wilson’s though will discourage others to visit the downtown area especially on wet days and nights.