KEY POINTS:
The run of bad luck at a new Pak'nSave supermarket in Auckland has worsened as a fire station abandons plans to shift to the site and contamination issues are discovered.
The New Zealand Fire Service has scrapped plans to shift its Takapuna base to an area of the
site alongside the new supermarket, which has stood empty for two years because planning consents were found to be invalid.
The Fire Service wanted to develop a new two-unit station beside the controversial and still-unopened store on Wairau Rd.
The service had struck a deal to buy part of the site based on an arrangement that supermarket giant Foodstuffs would secure valid planning consents. The service regarded the site as the best location for its regional North Shore base.
But two years of delays have now forced the service to drop its plans and look elsewhere.
In another blow, a small area of subsurface ground contamination from drycleaning fluids and printing inks has been discovered on the site.
During construction, Foodstuffs found the noxious substances, thought to have come from run-off of neighbouring businesses which have now departed.
The latest developments add to Foodstuffs' problems with its Wairau supermarket, dogged by an 18-year battle to begin building, then hit by a fire caused during construction, and subject to a legal dispute with rival Progressive, owned by Woolworths Australia.
Kevin Stacey, the Fire Service's national manager of strategic assets, said a search was now on for other sites in the Takapuna area.
"I guess we're disappointed in terms of the time it has taken."
Murray Jordan, general manager of property development at Foodstuffs, said delays had deterred the Fire Service, which had now scrapped its plans to shift to the site at Wairau and Porana Rds.
"Due to the continued delays, the Fire Service has decided not to proceed with its plans to relocate the Takapuna Fire Station to the site, but will pursue other options for relocation," Jordan said.
Foodstuffs has battled for 20 years to open the new store, which has been built by Fletcher Construction.
Foodstuffs subsidiary the National Trading Company got resource consent for the store and a two-appliance Takapuna station and North Shore Fire District headquarters on the corner site.
But Progressive took the case to the High Court, asserting North Shore City was wrong to grant Foodstuffs a non-notified consent. The High Court ruled the consent was invalid.
Foodstuffs was about to take the case to the Court of Appeal last year but then abandoned that plan.
In December, the council decided to process a new resource consent application on a limited notification basis which meant only the immediate neighbours would have a chance to object, and Progressive would be locked out of the process.
Foodstuffs has applied to the North Shore and Auckland Regional Councils for new consents.
Supermarket sorrows
Pak'nSave at Wairau Rd has been dogged by a series of misfortunes:
* An 18-year battle to begin building on the site.
* Fire engulfing the building as it was being finished.
* A legal wrangle which has kept the store shut.
* Abandonment by the Fire Service, which jettisoned its plans.
* Contamination of the site, discovered during construction.
