Inside controversial inner-city Bunnings

Jacqui Coombes, chief executive of Bunnings NZ, expects 3500 customers a day to shop at the new store, which opens on Monday. Photo / Brett Phibbs

Company has taken extensive steps to accommodate misgivings with $42m Grey Lynn store.

A controversial new Bunnings store that a group of Auckland residents fought hard to stop opens on Monday.

However, the company says it will operate in a novel way that aims to make it less intrusive in the neighbourhood.

Jacqui Coombes, Bunnings NZ chief executive, showed the Weekend Herald how the chain's first inner-city warehouse would have smaller delivery trucks, an internal truck turntable to ensure delivery vehicles did not back out on to the street and lower noise levels broadcast into the surrounding areas.

Travelators will take customers from basement parking to the brightly lit store. Concrete floors have been polished to a mirror-like finish.

After a long battle, the Arch Hill Residents Association won concessions in the Environment Court: nearby houses must be checked for structural damage from the building work, summer trading hours are limited, loudspeaker use will be controlled and traffic slowed.

Actor Tandi Wright and media personality Jesse Mulligan spoke out against the store after the neighbourhood raised issues of child safety, noise, pollution, construction, traffic and parking.

Coombes said the new store would be called Bunnings Warehouse Grey Lynn, a $42 million investment by the Australian owners, Wesfarmers, which expects 3500 customers a day, boosting its $1 billion annual revenue.

Coombes showed how trucks arriving at the city store could not be any more than 7m long because they would not fit on the turntable.

The nursery on the northern side has only two speakers and broadcast volumes would be controlled, she said.

"We're very conscious we're operating in a high-residential-use area so we cut down on traffic flow and noise. People will come here and we'll continue to work with the local community. We want to be part of the community," she said.

The prominent three-level store does not officially open till 7am on Monday, then will trade seven days a week. Each level is 7000sq m or about three-quarters of an acre and the store has two levels of carparking, delivery and timber trade areas, with one retail floor area at the top.

All up, the shop at 272-302 Great North Rd has a vast 2.1ha of indoor floorspace where 95 "red shirts" staff will work, allocated 50 staff car parks initially.

Coombes said 50 new roles had been created and other staff "liked the challenge of a new store, moved into the area and some got promoted".

About 42,500 product lines would be sold at the store, New Zealand's first Bunnings to have interior and exterior LED lighting on opening, she said.

Coombes said the new store would be the 54th New Zealand Bunnings and the 349th Bunnings store in Australasia. The store has a fully covered nursery on its northern side, indoor adventure playground and cafe.

As for an attempt to get Auckland Council consent for a huge Bunnings sign of about 20m by 8m on the store's exterior, Coombes said that was a mistake.

"We pulled the application. It's just an unfortunate mistake. It wasn't what we wanted."

David Batten, a Grey Lynn Residents Association board member, said: "The store is what it is. Our views haven't changed at all, to be honest. This came out of mediation. Bunnings has showed themselves to have attempted to be good neighbours."

But the store was yet to open, he cautioned, and its effects were yet to be felt.