Bledisloe House, right, and the car park which could be sold by Auckland Council. Photo / Herald
Bledisloe House, right, and the car park which could be sold by Auckland Council. Photo / Herald
Auckland Council is considering selling one of its prize assets in the central city, Bledisloe House, for some much needed cash.
Bledisloe House is a seven-storey office tower which houses about 1000 council staff. It opened in 1959, had a major refurbishment in 2014 and occupies 1.2ha of valuable land.
A sale of the neighbouring council-owned car park has prompted interest from developers to include Bledisloe House in the deal, finance committee chairwoman Desley Simpson told the Herald.
In June, the council sold a large office building at Graham St in the central city for $58 million and Bledisloe House could be the next building on the block.
The council is constantly investigating the sale of non-strategic assets to bolster its balance sheet, which is right up against its debt ceiling with the council struggling to meet day-to-day running costs and pay for new infrastructure.
The council is staying mum on how much the sale of the car park and Bledisloe House could bring, but it will be in the tens of millions of dollars.
Simpson said the value of the car park site is "commercially sensitive because we are currently in the market for a developer".
The sale, approved in May last year, includes the neighbouring site of the former Griffiths Building on the corner of Wellesley St and Mayoral Drive, Simpson said.
The land is earmarked for the Aotea station along the route of the $4.4 billion City Rail Link and a tower block above. There will be separate entrances in Victoria St.
An artist's impression of the Aotea station on the site of the old Griffiths Building and Bledisloe House car park. Image / City Rail Link Ltd
Any sale of Bledisloe House would have to go out for public consultation and be approved by councillors, Simpson said.
A council spokeswoman said no decisions have been taken about future uses of the Bledisloe House and whether the council would lease space or move out.
The spokesman said no thought had been given to selling the 29-storey council headquarters on Albert St, which is diagonally across the road from the Bledisloe car park site.
