Troubled Napier railway land earmarked for new shopping centre

The vacant former railway land at Munroe St in Napier was used for years as free parking. Photo / Duncan Brown

Former Napier railway land used as free parking while caught in a Treaty of Waitangi settlement tangle for more than 20 years is earmarked for a new shopping centre.

Effectively landbanked for use in the Crown's Treaty settlement with Napier area hapu entity Mana Ahuriri, the 1.28ha site is between Munroe St and the railway line, extending south from the Raffles St extension to the railway station building now occupied by the Napier Senior Citizens Association.

An application lodged with the Napier City Council is based on plans for a block of three retail sites, including Briscoe Group operations Briscoes and Rebel Sport, both currently on separate sites several hundred metres apart in Hastings St.

The new plans propose buildings parallel to and backing on to the railway line with 2099sq m to be occupied by Rebel Sports, 1319sq m by Briscoes and further space to be occupied by one other tenant. It faces parking for 161 vehicles stretching towards the Munroe St frontage.

It's on land incorporated in the Mohaka ki Ahuriri settlement, stemming from a tribunal report in multi-claimants' favour in 2004, but particularly relevant to the WAI 55 Te Whanganui A Orotu (Napier inner harbour) claim, which was subject of some of the tribunal's earliest hearings and which resulted in a report in the claimants' favour in 1995.

Settlement has been in abeyance since the Crown and Mana Ahuriri Trust signed a deed of settlement in 2016.

Mana Ahuriri Holdings was registered on May 28, its two directors and shareholders being Barry Wilson, who has been treasurer of the trust, and property developer Warren Ladbrook, who had been in the past involved in development plans in Hastings.

Wilson declined to comment publicly on the plans yesterday, and no costs or timelines have been revealed.

Briscoe Group was last night also yet to respond to a request for confirmation of its plans for Napier.

Part of the railway block is occupied by the Pak'nSave supermarket, a 7000sq m site which opened in 2004.

Since the closure of the railway yards in the late 1980s, the site has developed as a mainly gravelled area for opportunist free parking. There were at least two attempts to turn it into paid parking, one as a formal commercial venture, the other by a man telling motorists he confronted for payment that he represented the claimants or owners.

Last December and January it also became a dumping ground for abandoned vehicles, an eyesore attracting the dumping of other items such as whiteware and furniture, and rough sleepers.

The dumped vehicle remained in the area for several weeks before being removed by contractors at the request of the Napier City Council in consultation with Land Information NZ, the Government agency responsible for the land since 1994.

In the Treaty settlement it has deferred settlement status, giving the option of purchase within three years of the enacting of settlement legislation, which is yet to take place.