Sylvia Park's plan for future revealed

Sylvia Park has big plans. Photo / Doug Sherring

New Zealand's biggest shopping mall is planning a major expansion, including multi-storey apartments and office blocks to create a "mini CBD".

Sylvia Park management has applied for permission for taller buildings and more intensive development at the Mt Wellington site.

The shopping mall, which opened in 2006, already has retail, offices and entertainment spread over 25ha.

Project director Andrew Buckingham said the new proposal, submitted to Auckland City Council this week, would allow for future development.

There were no firm plans, but apartments could be built on site within 10 years, with more development to follow.

"Thirty years out, Sylvia Park is going to look radically different to what it looks like now in terms of density and activity on the site," Buckingham said.

Expansion could include redeveloping land currently used for parking, as well as building upwards.

"The intent is that ... we have some tall buildings, we give the thing some scale," he said.

"There are some great views on that site once you get up to three or four levels."

The proposed plan would allow for:

An extra 100,000sq m of floor space, about 14 rugby fields, of which 50,000 must be residential.

Building heights of between 10m and 60m.

More open spaces, including a new park near Lynton Rd.

Development would be coupled with traffic management plans that encourage more use of public transport, particularly by office workers.

In the meantime, plans for four new office blocks on Mt Wellington Highway were under way.

Two have been approved, while applications for a further two, which are over the council's height limit, have been publicly notified.

Auckland city councillor Graeme Mulholland said there would be a public call for submissions on the plan change application before it was considered by a hearings panel later this year.

"It's a thorough process that gives really good opportunity for submissions from all quarters, and any person who wants to be able to have a say," Mulholland said.