Dialogue: Newmarket doesn't need this huge retail fortress

PAUL SMITS* says that two megamalls planned for Newmarket have implications that extend beyond retailing into Auckland's social structure.


Until now, the Newmarket shopping centre has responded to urban growth in a natural way. However, with two megamalls planned for Broadway, it now finds itself at the crossroads.

Auckland One wants to build a 60,000 sq m retail complex on the Levene-277 site, while Westfield plans 65,000 sq m of retailing plus 7000 sq m of cinema space on the Mercury Energy site. Both threaten to swamp the existing 50,000 sq m of Broadway shops.

To gain an indication of scale, New Zealand's biggest shopping centre, St Lukes, is just 30,000 sq m. Last year it received 10 million visitors.

To match St Lukes' viability, the new malls combined would have to attract 40 to 45 million visitors a year. Last year only a fraction of that number visited the Newmarket shops. What effect would the malls have on the area?

The masses of vehicles - 84 per cent of visitors are expected to come by car - represent a recipe for gridlock. Newmarket has long been plagued by traffic problems. For decades it has had to absorb 5 per cent annual vehicle increases on a road system that has not grown.

The malls, to be located only a stone's throw apart, plan to incorporate parking for 3000 and 3500 cars respectively. Assuming that one park provides space for three to four cars a day, that adds up to 45,500 daily movements joining Newmarket's traffic.

Add the fleets of delivery trucks, service vans and staff cars, as well as five or so years of construction time, and it becomes apparent that even one megamall is one too many.

One of the developers, Westfield, wants a motorway off-ramp built to discharge across St Marks Rd into its mall - this at a time when Newmarket's badly overloaded Southern Motorway traffic is already struggling to cope, and when the Newmarket ramps, two on and one off, are considered to have been built too close together for safety and too short to change from 50 to 100 km/h and vice versa.

Malls are also notoriously energy-inefficient, their air-conditioning and lighting systems operating almost around the clock, using up enormous quantities of power.

The quantities of solid waste needing disposal would be vast and connections into already stretched supply and disposal lines most problematical. Other concerns would be noise and air pollution, Westfield's big complex casting huge shadows as far as St Marks Rd, and staff who park their cars in suburban streets.

There is a distinct difference between the two sites. Auckland One is yet to reveal its plans for the Levene-277 land, which is zoned for retail use. It is not expected to have difficulties meeting district plan requirements, while having a 300m-long frontage on Broadway should be advantageous.

Westfield's proposal is quite a different kettle of fish. It has acquired long-term leases on the old Mercury site premises in Nuffield St and owns a property on Broadway, as well as Palmers across the railway line in Remuera Rd. It plans to build an 11-storey complex on 4.3ha - a large part of which is to span publicly owned land.

To achieve this, it has had to ask the Auckland City Council for approval for the use of airspace over both Nuffield St and Nuffield Lane, to negotiate with the Railways Corporation for similar airspace rights over long stretches of the railway line, and to ask Transit NZ to approve the ramp.

It also wants the council to change zoning restrictions, thereby doubling the allowable height restriction to inner-city proportions, and to realign a street and make traffic flow one-way. All that makes quite a shopping basket of publicly owned property rights.

To justify all these proposals, Westfield has submitted an "assessment of environmental effects" report. It has raised deep concern among shopkeepers and residents.

They believe that relinquishment of public property rights for private commercial gain warrants the closest possible scrutiny.

Most worrying is that the decisions to be made will be at the sole discretion of city councillors; in this case Resource Management Act procedures are not applicable.

The public should be fully informed and should be given every opportunity to comment before decisions are made.

The prospect of having to compete with new developments which would occupy 2.6 times today's shop space has sent shockwaves through local retailers. And nearby residents are waking up to the threat to their environment.

To pull in the crowds on opening day, one of the developers has begun advertising aimed at children and young families. Westfield chief executive Grant Hirst says that Americans do half their shopping in supermalls, Australians a third, New Zealanders less than a quarter. He feels that, naturally, we must follow.

Competition benefits the customer and there is no doubt the malls would offer greater choice and entertainment. But their overkill in scale is unhealthy.

Once established and having crushed local trade, isn't it the customer who will have to pay back the $650 million development costs plus interests and profits - much of which will disappear overseas?

Westfield owns 11 shopping centres in New Zealand. It has the clout to draw chain stores away from Broadway. Others, including banks, would feel obliged to follow. What, then, will be the scenario for the rest of Broadway?

There are examples overseas. Landlords, finding it hard to gain quality replacement tenants, would be forced to lease cheaply to second-hand dealers, fast-food shops and video and massage parlours, which, in turn, tend to attract the wrong element and put off regular shoppers.

What will happen to the existing cinemas? Is this the change the public wants? The impact would be huge - in traffic, environmentally and in entertainment and shopping. City councillors have tried to resurrect Queen St shopping but, squeezed between an extended St Lukes and two Newmarket megamalls, it would be knocked for six by the drawing power of 160,000 sq m of extra shopping space.

Should Broadway and Queen St be allowed to become Karangahape Rd-type sleaze strips? The city's social structure is at stake.

Equally, nearby Parnell and Remuera would be hit hard. Parnell is an important link in the tourist trade. Lack of trade would see it lose its exclusiveness and quaintness. How many empty shops in Remuera would result?

Westfield's application to the council shows the extent of its customer catchment area in detail. The effects are planned to be far and wide. In only a few years our shopping ways could be changed dramatically.

Although Westfield's stated objective is "to enhance the existing amenities of Newmarket and to provide for good connectivity with the existing retail-dominated town centre," its design contrasts starkly with the existing shops that offer street-oriented, under-veranda shopping.

The Westfield mall would be a virtual retail fortress for people to move out of their cars into a fully air-conditioned climate characteristic of yet another standardised, synthetic shopping world.

* Paul Smits is chairman of the Remuera Community Committee.