KEY POINTS:
Auckland's skyline is set to be transformed as developers buck gloomy property forecasts with plans for at least five skyscrapers in the next three years.
The 232m Elliot Tower planned for the corner of Victoria and Albert streets will become the city's second-tallest building, while the 144m Saffron Apartments at 51-53 Albert St will be the fifth.
They are scheduled to be completed before the 2011 Rugby World Cup, although both projects have run into opposition.
The other schemes aiming for the sky are the proposed 120m, 39-storey Antipodean Apartments on top of the St James Theatre, a 26-storey hotel - again in Albert St - and a 114m residential/retail tower in Shortland St.
The Elliot Tower proposal is the most advanced, having secured planning permission last October.
Its height would be surpassed only by the Sky Tower but SkyCity has delayed the project by appealing to the Environment Court.
SkyCity claims the building would interfere with communications equipment on the Sky Tower.
The Saffron Apartments project has also attracted criticism, with Auckland City Council receiving 15 submissions on the resource consent application - 14 against the plan.
Objectors include the nearby St Patrick's Cathedral, the Bishop of Auckland and the Auckland Regional Council, mainly worried about the effects of the tower on the cathedral, St Patrick's Square and nearby heritage buildings.
The construction boom comes at a time when almost all property pundits are predicting dire times ahead.
But the developers appear unfazed, partly because of the time it takes to plan and build the skyscrapers.
Elliot Tower project manager Sean Park said developers were not put off by swings in the market.
"Markets go up and down in five-year cycles," he said. "We think it's currently at the bottom. The rental market is picking up and there is quite a lot of demand for apartments."
Park said the market could have recovered by the time the tower was built.
Asked if he thought all the skyscraper projects could succeed, he said it depended on how innovative the buildings were.
"Their chances are unlikely if they just offer the same kinds of apartment buildings," said Park. "If you can attract worldwide clients then you have a better chance."
Paul Doole, the developer behind the Antipodean Apartments, said the project had been on the drawing board for five years. "You're often planning a project in the middle of a downturn.
"The market has taken a hit lately, but in two years' time I think it would be completely different."
Doole said the planning and resource consent process had become more complex and time-consuming, but it did not appear to put people off dreaming about skyscrapers.
"It's a question of supply and demand. We have been in a bit of an oversupply situation, but I can see that coming to an end."
Doole laughed off any suggestion that ego or competitiveness was involved in erecting new skyscrapers.
"It's just building the damn things," he said.
Mayor of Auckland John Banks said high-rise proposals now had to "jump higher hurdles and go through tighter hoops" than before to get council approval.
"For these developments to proceed, they need to be of an international standard and quality, otherwise they're not going to go ahead."
Banks singled out the Metropolis Apartments and the Vero Centre as examples of good architecture, but described much of the development in the CBD, particularly around Hobson St, as "post-Beirut reconstruction".
"Auckland has witnessed some of the most shocking post-war urban development of any city in the OECD," he said. "Most of the buildings in Queen St which have been destroyed have been replaced with buildings which are a disgrace."
Banks said he believed the latest high-rise plans had probably been made before the latest downturn.
"Will they proceed?" he asked. "Not sure. Priorities are being re-ordered. I wouldn't be at all surprised if they were delayed."
