The North Wharf leasehold land for sale has these three long low buildings between the sea and ASB's headquarters. Photo / Moonshots
The North Wharf leasehold land for sale has these three long low buildings between the sea and ASB's headquarters. Photo / Moonshots
Auckland Council’s property arm is selling a waterfront site valued at $26.9 million but a redevelopment could see the award-winning ASB North Wharf lose sea views.
An Eke Panuku spokeswoman said John Holmes at CBRE had been engaged to sell the 3627sq m Wynyard Quarter site on Jellicoe St viaan expressions of interest campaign closing on May 4.
New developments of up to 15m or five levels could be built there, although one heritage building must remain, she said.
The bank’s HQ won the Property Council’s supreme award in 2014, praised for attention to detail, co-operation of all stakeholders, engineering features, commitment to sustainability and the delivery of a very complex project providing quality office accommodation.
NZX-listed multibillion-dollar landlord Kiwi Property owns the HQ with its distinctive curved roof for natural ventilation and that company said it was “a showcase of environmental design”.
One property investor said the sale could net the cash-strapped council $36m or more.
“Land in and around the Viaduct has been selling for $10,000/sq m. It wouldn’t be unreasonable to suggest that it could go for that price. That would be a relatively conservative approach,” he said.
Some sales in that area had been for as low as $6000/sq m, but not for waterfront sites.
The land at 1-17 and 39-47 Jellicoe St has low-use single-level developments leased to restaurant and hospitality businesses. Much better use could be made of that land, he said, if offices were built above.
Auckland Council values the 2175sq m 1-17 Jellicoe St at $14.2m and the 1851sq m 39-47 Jellicoe St at $12.7m, giving a total $26.9m.
Eke Panuku’s spokeswoman said the site for sale has three buildings: new east and west single-level buildings on either side of the historic 1930s Red Shed. That has special character status under the Unitary Plan.
“Due to this, any future development of the site must incorporate and retain this building,” she said.
ASB North Wharf and the three buildings for sale on the seaside. Photo / Richard Robinson
Asked about ASB’s views over the water and how high new development on the for-sale land could be, the Eke Panuku spokeswoman said: “The unitary plan allows for 15m. The form and function of the final development is down to the developer and their design team in line with the essential design outcomes.”
The Auckland Fish Markets are opposite the westernmost building.
Any future buildings on this site being sold must respect the integrity of the Red Shed in scale, materiality, colour and proportions, she said.
New buildings must be of an appropriate scale in relation to the North Wharf promenade. New blocks must also make visual connections to the water from the public realm and activate the promenade and street edges, she said - meaning businesses like cafes and restaurants would be needed to bring people to the area.
ASB North Wharf’s typical floor plates are around 4000sq m, it has 97 car parks and was finished in May, 2013. It is valued at $230m.
The green shaded area shows the three buildings for sale on the waterfront.
The sale announcement is no surprise: Eke Panuku said in its 2022-25 statement of intent that it plans to “secure a development partner for the long-term lease and development of North Wharf”.
The existing restaurant buildings on either side of the Red Shed were developed between 2009 and 2011 by the council’s Sea+City.
“It was designed to deliver on a medium-term or 10-to-15-year development strategy to create a destination along Jellicoe St that would provide income while retaining the full development potential of the land for a future date,” the spokeswoman said.
More than a decade later, a 125-year prepaid ground lease is being sold to a development partner to unlock the potential of a permanent and sustainable building for the site, she said.
After the expressions of interest campaign, there would be a multistage process to come up with an indicative design and a commercial offer for the site, the spokeswoman said.
Applications will be reviewed and then a development partner selected.
Project outcomes and timeframes will be dependent on the selection of a development partner and more detail will be shared once that is confirmed, she said.
When asked about potential view losses and the neighbouring land sale, ASB refused to comment.
A Kiwi Property spokesman said the land being sold had been zoned for development up to 15m since the Auckland Unitary Plan was released a number of years ago, so there’s no practical change at this point.
If a new structure was built to that height on the east and west blocks in the future, only the lower floors at either end of ASB North Wharf would be affected, with much of the building retaining the same uninterrupted views it has today.
