Mayor's plan gets early backing

Len Brown. Photo / Richard Robinson

Mayor Len Brown's public-private-partnership hopes look like becoming a reality because the council-owned Waterfront Auckland will soon announce and sign up parties for a $1 billion real estate development scheme.

John Dalzell, the Waterfront Auckland chief executive, welcomed the EY report which Brown commissioned then released yesterday, saying he was enthusiastic about the concept.

"We could be first off the blocks," Dalzell said, referring to the $1 billion hotel, residential and commercial development planned for the waterfront's Wynyard Central.

That scheme was certainly a type of PPP, he said, calling it a "strategic partnership approach" which he said was one of the PPP set-ups cited in the EY document.

Waterfront Auckland expected to be able to announce winning contenders for the work in the next few weeks and he said three to four parties were shortlisted.

They will build a five-star hotel on the Emirates Team NZ base, up to 1500 apartments in the central blocks of the area and commercial offices.

"We've been eagerly awaiting this and the EY paper is certainly a nice piece of work," Dalzell said. "None of this is new. Twelve months ago, we looked at this and set ourselves up for this."

Waterfront Auckland consulted with Jones Lang LaSalle and other experts.

"A lot of what you see in the EY report about these PPPs and the case studies - we've been right across that," Dalzell said.

Miles Brown of the Property Council said the EY paper could be a big leap forward.

Growth in Auckland showed no signs of slowing so it was necessary to consider options for progress and delivering the best outcome.

Brown said the city could not meet the pressure of required investment without innovative solutions such as PPPs.