Shane Brealey, of Simplicity Living, says Eke Panuku is too hard to deal with. Photo / Alex Burton
Shane Brealey, of Simplicity Living, says Eke Panuku is too hard to deal with. Photo / Alex Burton
A developer heading a business building hundreds of new Auckland apartments says we need more homes not meetings and Auckland Council’s property arm Eke Panuku is “too hard to deal with” over the sale of Northcote’s town centre.
But that agency says its master plan for a new town centreat Northcote was in the public interest and it was negotiating with other parties anyway.
Shane Brealey, managing director of Simplicity Living which plans 10,000 new apartments nationally and is building hundreds currently, expressed frustration over lengthy discussions with Eke Panuku which amounted to nought.
Eke Panuku land outlined in yellow. It is seeking a development partner for revitalisation. Photo / Eke Panuku
“Too hard to deal with. We need more homes, not more meetings. Simplicity Living is an obvious buyer of Eke Panuku land in Hobsonville, as it was in Northcote town centre.
“We would have generated great outcomes for the city in these locations. Unfortunately, it wasn’t possible for Simplicity to get past the time and resources required in dealing with Eke Panuku. This is a real shame for Tāmaki Makaurau,” Brealey said.
Eke Panuku owns 3.13ha in Northcote’s hub: a 600-vehicle car park surrounded by shops. PwC is managing the sale process.
Speculation is the land may go for $60m or more.
The spokeswoman said in response to Brealey the entity was a regeneration agency so it had to ensure council land development met specific needs. It accepted Simplicity’s withdrawal and hoped it would be open to working together again.
Brealey wrote to Eke Panuku development manager Allan Young: “It is clear to us that our way of operating is incompatible with that of Eke Panuku and therefore we are unable to participate further in the Northcote Central developer procurement process.
“The Simplicity Living Board is not prepared to expose Simplicity KiwiSaver and Investors funds to the risks, uncertain timeframes and resource levels required to treat with Eke Panuku on this development. We wish you every success with the project.”
Plans in the information memorandum show what Eke Panuku has in mind for Northcote's town centre. Photo / Eke Panuku
The spokeswoman said deals like at Northcote were not simply land transactions and developers were required to meet results to serve the needs of the surrounding community.
Eke Panuku works on a range of scenarios from small single-site projects through to large and complex sites requiring a master plan which guides integrated, mixed-use development outcomes over multiple years.
Northcote was at the large, complex end of its regeneration work, she said.
“We appreciate that this type of development and the agreements required with development partners are not suited to all developers as many developers prefer to ‘do their own thing’.
“However, from our direct experience over a number of years, and in a number of different locations, many developers recognise the importance of, and are happy to work with, an agreed master plan. They understand the benefits of doing so,” she said.
Simplicity offered a good product and Eke Panuku had worked with them through the expression of interest and request for development proposal process to date.
