Sylvia Park: A catalyst for a new generation of town centre

A Sylvia Park concept drawing shows the mall will be open to the elements in parts.

Hype has surrounded Sylvia Park since redevelopment of the World War II-vintage storage sheds beside the southern motorway in Mt Wellington was signalled 10 years ago. Developer Kiwi Income Property Trust billed it as a new generation town centre, and the 1999 regional growth strategy envisaged it as a catalyst for residential intensification, boosting the population from 6700 to 17,000.

Weighing in its favour is the main trunk railway line on its eastern boundary. But as earthmovers scour the 21ha site split in half by the southeastern highway, larger forces are at work. Kiwi chief executive Angus McNaughton notes motorway and highway access put Sylvia Park within 20 minutes' drive of more than half of Auckland's population.

The revised plans presented to the Auckland City Council this month reveal this is not so much a town centre as a very large mall and office park, with 3500 carparks. Its single biggest building will become another Red Shed. A small strip is set aside for future residential development but, says McNaughton, the residential component remains "an opportunity".

Auckland City Council planners have worked closely with Kiwi to influence design. "We're spending millions on the facades and a promenade," says McNaughton.

Kiwi has approval for stage one of the development, the mall. Future stages include office buildings, more retail, movie theatres, restaurants and an education facility. The centre will have pedestrian access from surrounding streets and its own train station. Convenience stores and retail display will face the surrounding carparks. A central promenade will in places be open to the elements, although McNaughton cautions "not everyone wants these inside-out malls - they want to be under cover".

To reach the maximum 60,000sq m retail space, the council insisted on community facilities, such as childcare and welfare, but it also counts restaurants and cinemas as community facilities.

The prospect of Sylvia Park including a library, a medical centre and Citizens Advice Bureau frightens Progressive Panmure chief executive Barbara Mackay. "These new town centres are targeting services which are integral to strip shopping. Every time a new town centre is built it impacts on others."

The council's manager of implementation planning, Ian Maxwell, hesitates before declaring Sylvia Park is a town centre. "I think it could just be what town centres are like in the 2000s. It will have some retail, some employment, and some community facilities."

Maxwell defends the scale, saying developers are driven by demand from large-format retailers.

"How do we manage it? I don't know. Perhaps it needs consumers to say, 'I don't like it and I expect something better'."

He says Sylvia Park is consistent with the regional growth strategy. "We see Panmure serving a larger local population, and Sylvia Park providing the choice that the wider area has been looking for.

"Certainly, in the Tamaki Edge area, people are looking forward to Sylvia Park.

"The town-centre backlash is coming from nice-thinking folk - they will go to the high street."