A new $25 million parking building will be needed in Tauranga's downtown within the next four years to relieve pressure on carparking.
The prospect of a third 650-space building was raised in a report prepared for last week's council debate on the introduction of free parking into the city centre.
Transportation manager Martin Parkes highlighted how demand for carparks had increased during the past two years to the point where further downtown developments such as Trustpower's new head office and the $67 million university campus would place additional pressure on parking.
He said the Trustpower development would increase the demand for public carparks by up to 300 if staff did not transition from cars to other modes of transport.
The head office under construction in Durham St will have 75 carparks for about 400 staff while the campus across the road would be built on land currently used for carparks.
Mr Parkes said unless there was a big shift in people's commuting habits, a third carpark building would be needed between 2015-18.
An additional option was to spend $5 million to add another floor to the Elizabeth St parking building, gaining another 110 spaces.
City councillor Rick Curach told the Bay of Plenty Times Weekend that he has asked Mr Parkes how many of the 300 carparks the council had committed to supply to Trustpower, after being told at the meeting that the information was confidential.
He has since received a confidential reply and will be discussing the issue with other councillors next week in a bid to get the information out into the open.
Cr Curach said the horse had already bolted on the need for more carparks, regardless of whether the council decided to support a free parking trial - the council postponed making a decision last week until it had received further financial information.
Cr Curach and two other councillors toured the two parking buildings on the Monday prior to the meeting and were surprised at how few parks were left on what they thought would be a low demand day.
Pressure on the council to consider a new carpark building comes less than two years after it abolished minimum on-site parking requirements for new developments, leaving it to the market to decide.
Advice from planning staff at the time was that there was sufficient capacity for a "substantial period of time".
Cr Curach wondered about that assurance given the council would receive a report later this year on the need for a third carpark building "and/or an additional floor on the Elizabeth St carpark building".
Trustpower's community relations manager Graeme Purches said at this stage they did not know what their parking requirements would be. They were consulting with staff on how they intended to get to work once the shift took place in March 2016 because the shift from Te Maunga opened up other options such as public transport.
He said parking in the city centre was a much bigger problem than Trustpower had anticipated but they had a strong understanding to work with the council to get the best outcome for all.
"If we end up leasing [carparking] space, it will be done on a commercial basis."
Trustpower will sit down with the council once it had a better understanding of its requirements, Mr Purches said.
Councillor John Robson said Trustpower would place demands on the city centre's parking infrastructure but people had to be careful not to frame things in the negative.
"We have to think of the other side of the equation.
"If there is a demand for leased parking, it means a lot of people are coming here [the downtown] to work."
Cr Robson did a rough calculation based on revenue from an extra 500 leased carparks and said it could service a $25 million loan for a new building.
He said the council did not need to panic about how much a parking building costs.
"There is a revenue side to this, not just a cost."