Gully project stormwater issue sorted

Greg Reidy says precinct work is almost finished. Photo / Paul Estcourt

The $120 million job to put up office blocks and shops in Grafton Gully has not been without its problems.

Readers have complained about traffic snarl-ups around the Stanley St and the motorway junctions while construction work is under way.

Greg Reidy, of developers McDougall Reidy, said work was almost finished on the third office block in the new precinct.

Infrastructure has been a big part of work on the McDougall Reidy site.

Reidy said one of the biggest challenges in developing the McDougall Reidy site was coping with huge stormwater issues.

Two giant water tanks were sunk into the ground to take stormwater from Parnell then feed it into council stormwater pipes which were in an extremely poor state of repair and not large enough to cope with such a volume of water, he said.

So tanks on the old Carlaw Park site were built to feed water into this pipe network, he said. The surface of one tank is visible beneath the carparking block at the back of the Quest Hotel.

McDougall Reidy was a founder of Direct Property Fund which owns real estate worth $390 million.

In May, Direct paid $17 million for a West Auckland development off Rosebank Rd, Avondale. It bought Southern Spars' new headquarters, built in dedicated premises by Direct, in a joint venture with Haydn & Rollett Construction. An 8000sq m warehouse with 1250sq m of office space was built for Southern Spars which took a 12-year lease on the property.