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A supermarket giant is applying for resource consent for a new store - more than two years after finishing a vast building.
Foodstuffs says it will publicly notify its application for resource consent for its new Pak'nSave at Wairau Park on Auckland's North Shore today.
The supermarket owner has been barred from opening its large-format store on the Porana Rd corner and has fenced the building, which has stood empty all this time.
Today's notification will allow all dissenting parties to object to the new store, which could generate sales of more than $70 million a year.
The supermarket, finished two years ago, is barred from opening because its resource consent was found to be invalid. Rival supermarket owner Progressive thwarted Foodstuffs, claiming the original resource consent was invalid because it did not take full account of the effects of traffic.
So Foodstuffs has decided to go back to the first stage of the planning process and re-lodge its application.
Murray Jordan, general manager of property development, said the supermarket co-operative had decided against applying on a limited-notification basis.
"We are now going for a fully notified consent, which gives all parties the opportunity to express their views on our proposal for the Pak'nSave," he said yesterday.
"We've had overwhelming public support for the store. It's been over two years since we were forced to stop work on the site and yet we are still receiving calls every week from people asking when the store is going to open.
"Now's the chance for people to voice their support publicly," he said.
Foodstuffs yesterday opened a New World at Westfield Albany on Don McKinnon Drive.
