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After supplying Kiwis with fresh fish for more than 100 years, the Sanford Fish Market on Auckland’s waterfront could be sold and turned into apartments.
But before the curtain can come down on the Fish Market on North Wharf at Wynyard Quarter, the landowner, target="_blank">Auckland Council, has to go through a process to wrap the four separate 20-year ground leases covering 1.1ha into a long-term, prepaid ground lease.
Sanford has operated the Auckland Fish Market at Wynyard Quarter since 1904.
Albert Sanford started the Auckland Fish Market on Jellicoe St in 1904 and since then the city’s oldest fishmonger has become synonymous with fresh fish and seafood.
The country’s largest and oldest seafood company also has had a processing plant on the large 1.1ha site, bordered by the city’s newest waterfront development being staged from an industrial area and brought to life in the form of apartments, open spaces and commercial activity since 2007.
In a statement, Sanford chief finance officer Paul Alston said the company has started to reassess the use of its Auckland premises as part of the restructuring and sale of its North Island inshore fisheries assets to Moana New Zealand.
Sanford has started negotiations for the sale of a perpetual right to lease the Auckland site, but at this stage, negotiations are ongoing, incomplete and confidential, Alston said.
He said as a result of the sale to Moana, the company has closed the fish processing plant in Auckland, but the auction, retail complex at the fish market, and ice manufacturing plant, continue to operate.
“It is possible Sanford may remain at the site and continue to operate the fish market.”
Auckland councillors will today consider a proposal to allow the four leases to be packaged into a long-term, pre-paid lease, which is considered the equivalent of a freehold sale.
The Fish Market has supplied fresh fish and seafood to generations of Aucklanders.
Because the site is considered a strategic asset, the proposal will be included in the council’s new 10-year budget for public consultation.
The process is being handled by the council’s development arm, Eke Panuku, and any development will be subject to design and quality standards in the council’s Waterfront Plan and Unitary Plan.
As the existing leases have been granted in perpetuity, there is no opportunity for Auckland Council to cancel and utilise the site in another way, or sell it on the open market, said a report to the governing body, signed off by Eke Panuku’s chief executive David Rankin and council chief executive Phil Wilson.
A spokesperson for Eke Panuku said the purpose of the proposal before councillors is to ensure the agency can engage as part of the 10-year budget, also known as the Long-Term Plan, “should we get approached regarding a new, long-term pre-paid ground lease for 22-32 Jellicoe Street.
“Eke Panuku has no further details to supply regarding the future of this site,” the spokesperson said.
Bernard Orsman is an Auckland-based reporter who has been covering local government and transport since 1998. He joined the Herald in 1990 and worked in the parliamentary press gallery for six years.
