Tauranga City Council considers selling CBD car parking buildings

The Tauranga City Council car parking building at the corner of Spring St and Durham St. Photo / Andrew Warner

Tauranga's CBD parking buildings could be sold to help fund a preferred $303.4m million civic rebuild project spend.

And keen buyers are already circling.

At a Tauranga City Council meeting yesterday, commissioners approved plans to consider the proposal as part of a suite of changes to the already approved Long-Term Plan 2021/31.
The potential removal of the CBD's free parking and a 20 per cent increase in the standard parking fee were also items that will be considered and consulted on.

On December 6, 2021, the council approved the preparation of a Long-Term Plan Amendment report, which will be consulted alongside the 2022/23 Annual Plan. The report detailed the proposed sale of the council-owned parking buildings on Spring St, Elizabeth St, and the Marine Precinct.

In the report, a team of co-writers of varying finance, growth and planning roles asked the commission "to investigate the sale of non-core assets to reduce debt and realise value".

Downtown Tauranga chairman Brian Berry says he is not opposed to the prospect of the CBD's parking buildings being sold into the private sector. Photo / NZME

The CBD parking buildings and marine precinct were "identified for investigation".

The commission accepted the report which will go out for public consultation before anything is formally approved. This includes offering two options for the Civic Precinct Te Manawataki o Te Papa, with the council noting its preferred option of spending $3.03m compared to a second option estimated at $126.8m.

The council's Long-Term Plan 2021/31 noted the council's challenge to deliver the amount of infrastructure needed for the city while the council's borrowing levels were already creeping close to the Local Government Funding Agency's borrowing limits.

"The limit that constrains council is its debt to revenue ratio as Tauranga City Council is one of New Zealand's most indebted councils," the report stated.

The Long-Term Plan also noted the council was continuing to work on alternative options for funding and financing its capital programme. This included investigating the use of the Government's Infrastructure, Funding and Financing legislation, which would not affect the council's balance sheet.

The Tauranga City Council car parking building on Elizabeth St. Photo / Andrew Warner

At the meeting, Tolley said the amendments outlined in the report were "significant" and that while they were working to explore Government and other external funding, there needed to be a discussion about what the council could do for itself.

"We are considering selling some of our assets. Is the council the right one to be operating car parking buildings? Or are we better off releasing that asset to run the library, civic amenities, etc?

"These are the conversations we need to be having with our communities now."

After the meeting, Tolley said any money made from the potential sale of the car parking buildings would help fund big-ticket projects such as the civic centre rebuild.

Tolley told the Bay of Plenty Times the council had already been approached by people interested in buying the parking buildings, "that's why we want to go out into the community, we want to have the conversation first".

"If you think about councils being responsible for rubbish, roads and placemaking in particular, and looking ahead to if the Three Waters happens, we need to be asking what is the role of local government?"

Tauranga City Council commission chairwoman Anne Tolley. Photo / Andrew Warner

Tolley said if the proposed sale went ahead, it would do so with the condition the purpose of the buildings remained as providing car parking.

Downtown Tauranga chairman Brian Berry said after the meeting he was "reasonably relaxed" at the prospect of the CBD's parking building being sold.

"As long as the council retains control of the civic site, that's the important one for the future of the city," Berry said.

Berry said he hoped any potential sale would reach market value and that they remained as parking buildings.

"That money could certainly be redirected to the civic site and inner-city reserves."

Council staff were expected to return to the commission next week with a report that considers the effect of the changes on the council's finances before a final report - containing the consultation document for the Long-Term Plan amendment and the Annual Plan - is presented on March 24.