Yacht base at Hobsonville offers 500 jobs

By MATHEW DEARNALEY and SIMON COLLINS

Turning part of the Hobsonville Air Force base into a deepwater port hosting hundreds of boatbuilding jobs is emerging as a flagship project for the new Ministry of Economic Development.

Deputy Prime Minister Jim Anderton is putting his ministry behind a bid by Canadian-based Sovereign Yachts to start building the first two of a fleet of motorised superyachts at Hobsonville by the end of this year.

And with the Government close to making decisions on defence land holdings throughout the country, a taskforce commissioned by Waitakere mayor Bob Harvey believes there is plenty of room on the Hobsonville foreshore for local boatbuilders as well.

Defence Minister Mark Burton is ready to put recommendations to the cabinet as early as today on a 1997 property review sidelined by his National Party predecessor, although any announcements are likely to be a week or so away.

The Government is expected to order a retreat by the Air Force after 70 years at Hobsonville, but fixed-wing military aircraft are likely to stay at its nearby Whenuapai base.

Although it is unclear whether Iroquois helicopters and the Army's elite Special Air Service will move there or to the lower North Island, Mr Harvey is relieved that Whenuapai will be retained despite a closure recommendation by consultants.

Prime Minister Helen Clark has ruled out a bid by Anzac frigate-builder Tenix to host a move by the Navy north to Whangarei.

The 162ha Hobsonville site, with a 1997 Government valuation of $65.7 million, is prime real estate for which Mr Harvey's taskforce also proposes a subdivision of about 200 townhouses set back from a marine industrial park.

More than 1000 people live in barracks and 322 houses on or next to the base, many of them already commuting to work at Whenuapai, which has only 158 houses.

Sovereign Yachts is owned by expatriate New Zealander Bill Lloyd, who is expanding his Vancouver operation but also wants to build luxury spectator boats of over 35m here in time for the next America's Cup in 2003.

Mr Anderton has been tantalising Auckland businesspeople with talk of a project "which could involve up to 500 new jobs - high-skills, high-value jobs and $200 million to $300 million of exports."

"They are Kiwis, they have been doing work overseas. They have the orders but they want to get it started by Christmas," he said.

"If we can't organise ourselves, if we lose business opportunities that offer hundreds of jobs and hundreds of millions of dollars of export earnings, then we are not serious about economic development."

He said the proponents were asking the Government for help to facilitate the project, not money.

Mr Anderton emphasised that the Government would be backing a cluster of industries and not just one player, although some local boatbuilders short of deepwater access wonder if there will be enough room at Hobsonville for them as well.

They are also sceptical about the feasibility of Sovereign's deadline, given a legal requirement for the Crown to offer descendants of previous landowners first rights to buy back the site.

But Mr Harvey's taskforce has already traced descendants and iwi representatives, hoping that early consultation will avoid a repeat of an ownership wrangle that has delayed disposal of the old Papakura Army camp for eight years.

"If we get into a Papakura situation we are finished," he said.

Mr Harvey hopes Hobsonville will end up with a "San Diego-like feel" but has dropped an earlier suggestion of housing part of Waitakere's thriving film industry there, saying that sector is well-catered for elsewhere.

Mr Harvey is meanwhile encouraged by a report, prepared for the now-defunct Maori Employment and Training Commission, which says a deepwater port at Hobsonville is crucial for the expansion of Waitakere's booming but cramped boatbuilding industry.

Waitakere boatbuilders, flush with orders after New Zealand's successful America's Cup defence, already employ more than 1000 people but are becoming hamstrung by limited access to deep water to launch their ever-growing superyacht creations.