Chelsea well placed to win share of Tank Farm's trade

The Chelsea Sugar Refinery is eyeing business opportunities when the bulk liquid industry moves off the Tank Farm to make way for the largest waterfront redevelopment in the history of Auckland.

The historic sugar refinery, located in coastal parkland, says it is set up to take bulk liquids but does not believe dangerous chemicals and petroleum products would go with its food business.

Ports of Auckland - publicly owned by the Auckland Regional Council - Auckland City Council and private landowners plan to redevelop the contaminated dockland into a mixed precinct with waterfront promenades, parks, apartments and marine facilities.

The sugar refinery is one of five sites within the Auckland region identified as a possible new location for the bulk liquid industry, which is being forced off the Tank Farm by the ports company when leases expire between 2016 and 2025.

The other sites are the main port facilities at Mechanics Bay, Gabador Place at Mt Wellington, Wiri and Ponui Island/Orere Pt/Firth of Thames.

John Ellis, commercial manager of Chelsea's owner, the New Zealand Sugar Company, said the refinery had a deep water facility, tankage and spare land zoned business 9 that could be developed for bulk liquids.

"We are a heavy industrial business but we are also a food business and I don't think it would sit very well with our goods business having petroleum products, chemicals and dangerous goods," Mr Ellis said.

The company had bulk tankage for liquid sugar and could take products such as vegetable oils, he said.

Jennifer Yorke, deputy chairwoman of the Birkenhead-Northcote community board, yesterday said reaction to the storage of harmless liquids would hinge on the aesthetic appearance of new storage facilities and whether it impinged on a planned new park.

The sugar company has conditionally agreed to sell 37ha of harbourside land for $20 million to the Chelsea Park Trust for a community park pending a satisfactory outcome of a district plan change allowing the addition of up to 528 residential units on a further 15ha of the Chelsea Estate.

Geoff Green, co-ordinator for the Westhaven Viaduct Tenants and Ratepayers Association, said the bulk liquid industry did not want to move from the Tank Farm.

It was far from happy about plans to develop a process, timetable and find alternative sites for the 258,000 tonnes of bulk liquids that crossed Wynyard Wharf on the Tank Farm each year.

A report going to the ARC's regional strategy and planning committee today acknowledged there were few viable alternative sites in the Auckland region for the industry, which generated up to 4000 jobs and $1 billion of economic activity.