Covering the waterfront

By ANNE GIBSON

A land rush is on for Auckland's inner-city waterfront, about to become a new mini-city housing thousands of apartment residents and office workers.

With the first stage of the Britomart redevelopment completed and the Viaduct Basin rapidly growing, developers have turned their attention to tracts of leasehold land along Quay St, across the road from the city's wharves.

The planned apartments are being marketed largely on the strength of their sea views.

One advertisement for a tower even shows Sydney's Opera House in the "far" distance.

Private developers working in the area are shifting the city's focus to the sea and building parking blocks, offices and rows of apartment towers on former railway and industrial land.

Part of the area was home to the now-demolished Chinese and Oriental Markets, and rows of cheap parking for city workers. All is changing fast.

Most of the Quay St land is owned by Ngati Whatua, who stand to reap rich rewards from its development and escalating values.

Ngati Whatua have sold only the leasehold interest in their land, on long-term leasehold tenures with regular rent reviews, some every seven years.

Once the developers have built and sold their buildings, the land rental bills will be passed on to those living or working in the new mini-city.

The new buildings will have water views, be within walking distance of the CBD and near ferries, trains and buses and the $200 million Britomart transport link.

But they will have drawbacks. However glossy the new towers promise to be, they will also be right on the doorstep of Ports of Auckland's 24-hour-a-day freight terminals, which move more than 2000 ships and 650,000 containers a year.

Bronwen Jones, of Ports of Auckland, warns that people should not move in and expect total peace and quiet.

As new residential developments have intensified close to the port, she says, the number of noise complaints has grown.

Jones talks of "reverse sensitivity" whereby new residents arrive, find problems with living in an area, then make extensive complaints against an existing operation.

The port operates within "strict noise control limits", she says, sound-proofing equipment, minimising rail shunting, eliminating warning sirens and establishing a hotline for noise complaints which it investigates.

"Often, night-time noise is found not to come from the port," Jones says.

The Auckland City Council's proposed district plan for the central area required developers to pay attention to the design of buildings and "include appropriate noise attenuation measures and to take into account the possibility of glare of light spill from the port".

But Brian Sutton, executive director of developer Starline Group, says noise is not an issue at his firm's offices in the Quay Park precinct.

The city council has tight controls on building quality in the area, he says, and people will enjoy living near the port.

Fear of litigation over noise at the completed twin-tower 88 The Strand at the eastern end of Quay St resulted in a legal dispute between its developer and Ports of Auckland.

The port company wanted properties near its Fergusson container terminal to have noise control measures to prevent future occupants complaining about the noise.

The changes along Quay St have created concerns for the Auckland Architecture Association. President Shannon Joe, who works for architecture Warren and Mahoney in Auckland, says the group is excited at the prospects of changes, but this is the last chance to get the area right.

He wants people to let the association know what they think of the changes (email aaa_aware@hotmail.com).

Extensive criticism of changes in the area has focused on the proposed SuperDome and the three apartment blocks being built by Tony Gapes of Redwood Group, he says.

Gapes has three 16-level blocks totalling 350 apartment in various stages of planning for a waterfront plot of land where the Oriental Markets once stood.

Jamie Peters, of Starline Group, is spending $350 million in the area, building the hefty East on Quay project, an office park of three buildings near the former railway station.

The first stage is the $75 million office/carpark project spread across 3.3ha, but soon he will unveil plans for eight blocks of apartments totalling 800 to 900 units and a hotel.

A six-storey, 540-space carpark was projected last year to be worth $15 million on completion.

Coltrane Developments, owned by Jamie Peters' brother, Mat Peters, will soon start building the 132-unit Hudson Brown apartments.

Mosen Hagi, of Persian rug retailer House of Hagi, is developing apartments at 8 Ronayne St.

The future of the $80 million SuperDome is still up in the air, as costs are examined and the council holds discussions with the Australian developer, Abigroup.

McKenna's The Grand between Waterloo Quadrant and Eden Crescent is an 18-level tower with 477 units, which is being marketed in Kuala Lumpur.

McKenna is also busy in the Viaduct Basin, building his Lighter Quays project, a mixture of apartments and a boutique hotel.

Real estate consultancy DTZ estimated this year that 4000 units worth at least $3 billion were being built in Auckland.

Most of these are on the fringes of the central business district and some are around the Viaduct Harbour.