Retailer loses bid to stop landlord's plans

An artist's impression of the proposed Sylvia Park office block. Photo / Supplied.

A national retailer lost a fight to stop one of the country's richest landlords expanding its $452 million Auckland shopping centre, documents show.

Bunnings battled NZX-listed Kiwi Income Property Trust over Mt Wellington's Sylvia Park, where a series of tall office blocks are planned for areas around the mall on flat asphalt carparking sites.

Hearing commissioners convened last month on the case and Auckland City has posted documents showing how the dispute unfolded.

The centre is Kiwi's flagship mall and New Zealand's largest shopping centre at 71,168sq m with 4002 carparks, generating $31.1 million net rental income annually.

But Kiwi regards its 21ha of land as having huge untapped wealth-generating capacity because only a portion of the site has been developed.

Carparking configurations will be changed to make way for the series of office blocks embracing the perimeter of the site, with tenants encouraged to use public transport to get to work.

Opponents of the expansion say more people working and shopping at the planned Sylvia Park Business Centre will bring extra traffic, despite public transport interchanges for trains and buses.

Bunnings objected to the expansion based on traffic effects around its own headquarters on Carbine Rd.

"The head office for Bunnings New Zealand's operations occupies 78 Carbine Rd, the site immediately opposite the controlled intersection of Sylvia Park Entrance 5 and Carbine Rd," the decision summary said.

"Bunnings lodged a submission in opposition regarding the perceived adverse effect of the proposed development on its access to and through this intersection. It was clear from the traffic witnesses for both Bunnings and the applicant (Kiwi) that a good deal of consultation has gone into finding a solution to this issue, the sticking point of which appeared to be obtaining written confirmation of the proposed mitigation measures by the entity responsible for the road network, Auckland Transport CCO," the council said.

The council gave Kiwi permission to build the two new towers, seven and eight storeys high, on its Mt Wellington Highway frontage. Kiwi can now start 28,156sq m office construction: 15,411sq m in one tower and 12,745sq m in another but it said yesterday that it had no immediate plans. The two buildings have consent for a combination of basement and above-ground internal carparking.

Council consent was needed because of the height and size of the towers, the amount of earthworks involved, construction of basement parking in one block below the one-in-50-year flood level and some stacked carparking spaces.

This step is just the latest for Kiwi, which is planning a much bigger expansion of the park with at least four new office blocks there. Kiwi already has permission for the first two blocks, which will have a combined floor area of 20,000sq m.

The council said Kiwi now had consent to expand the park significantly and eventually take its 7ha of floorspace to 12ha if it went ahead with all four buildings.

"The 28,000sq m gross floor area added by proposed buildings C and D would bring the total office development gross floor area for Sylvia Park to 120,000sq m," the council said.

Buildings C and D were the subject of the latest hearing and infringe a 6.5m height limit for buildings within 14.5m of the South Eastern Arterial Flyover, as well as other height restrictions.

Expansion

* Four giant office blocks planned.

* All now have council consent.

* Bunnings fought against latest two.

* Objection based on traffic effects.

* Kiwi now allowed to start building.

* Sites used for carparking.

* 7ha of mall floorspace to grow.

* 12ha floorspace can be developed.