Traffic chaos could damage Sylvia Park expansion plans

Shoppers were turned away over the weekend because of a lack of carparks. Picture / Dean Purcell

Financiers are beginning to question the impact of shopper chaos at Auckland's $388 million hypermart, which they say could deter spending and eventually harm expansion plans.

Analyst Mark Lister, of ABN Amro Craigs, said publicity about Sylvia Park's opening appeared to be a boost for owner Kiwi Income Property Trust but could ultimately damage the $1.45 billion trust's largest investment.

"Sylvia Park might soon be seen as not an attractive place to shop or have a shop," he said. That could affect the yield and, ultimately, Kiwi's unit price.

Lister expected the centre's novelty value to wane soon, resulting in more stable trading patterns for retailers and less traffic mayhem.

He said the lack of infrastructure to support the park's opening probably kept more shoppers from visiting.

Simon Botherway, of institutional investor Brook Asset Management, said the trust's ability to build offices on the site could be curtailed after problems with the shopping mall's stage one opening.

The expense involved in resolving traffic issues could also cost the trust dearly.

"If those traffic problems have to be remedied by Kiwi - which I understand is the case - how expensive will that be?" Botherway asked.

"It doesn't bode particularly well for Kiwi or further development on the site."

Units in Kiwi Income closed yesterday at $1.31, unchanged from before Sylvia Park opened on Thursday.

Yesterday's power failure gave overwrought retailers a respite from four days of shopper stampedes.

The shopping centre was evacuated at 8.45am and security guards were posted at entrances to turn shoppers away.

Standby generators provided minimum power but staff at many stores were working in darkness.

Retailing staff used the time to check inventories and their merchandise, and prepare for what they expect to be another surge of shoppers this weekend.

After the weekend's traffic mayhem, which saw shoppers being told to stay away, a management team from The Warehouse was touring the new store to scan shelves and re-examine strategies.

"We're looking at what worked best and what didn't work," said Michael Pook, format development at The Warehouse Extra and the man in charge of planning the layout of the new store. During the weekend, it contained more than 2000 shoppers at any one time, keeping all 28 checkouts ticking.

Pook said the weekend traffic chaos had not dented shopper numbers, although management was expecting the initial flood of interest to die down soon.

Anton Wesselink, manager of Stirling Sport at Sylvia Park, said his shop's location outside The Warehouse Extra resulted in a hectic weekend. "It's a lot quieter today," he said.

On Sunday up to 40 shoppers were crammed in the store at any one time, which was a stretch for the six staff.

Trust boss Angus McNaughton estimated up to 7000 people were at the centre at any time during the weekend, basing estimates on just over three people arriving in the 2000 vehicles parked at the centre.

But he is planning ways to avoid further traffic problems.

During the weekend, two Mt Wellington Highway entrances to Sylvia Park were closed and motorway mobile signs re-directed traffic to enter the park from Carbine Rd.

"The motorway exits were fine but we will educate consumers to use the Carbine Rd exit," he said.

The motorways had coped well at the weekend but the centre did not have enough carparks, a problem that was being remedied.

During the past five days, the trust has almost doubled the number of car parks and executives were yesterday meeting site foremen at Multiplex Constructions to work out how to free up more parks on the 24ha site.

Three-quarters of the site is still being developed and is a secured construction zone.

McNaughton said parking was so short last week that management allowed shoppers to use the centre's 2km ring road. Site worker parking spaces were also made available to shoppers to ease congestion.

The centre opened on Thursday with 1200 carparks, deemed to be an appropriate number. However, when the shopper frenzy became obvious, that number was increased to 1650.

By Saturday, 1900 carparks were available and that increased to 2000 on Sunday. McNaughton hopes another 200 will become available this week.

The park's first few days of trading had taken him by surprise. "This has exceeded our wildest expectations. It's just unbelievable," he said.

McNaughton sees no problems if shopper interest remains high, although he is also expecting the high shopper numbers to ease off soon.

He said the traffic holdups were not denting sales: Sylvia Park Flowers sold out of stock three times last Thursday.

Parking the car

* Management planned to open 1200 parks last Thursday.

* The shopping stampede meant 1650 were made available.

* By the weekend, there was parking for 2000 vehicles.

* However, it was not enough and shoppers were told: "Stay away".

* This week, 2200 carparks should be available.