Giant Broadway mall upsets motorway boss

By SIMON COLLINS

Developers planning New Zealand's biggest shopping mall in Newmarket want a new off-ramp from the southern motorway - but no one has yet told Transit New Zealand.

Australia's Westfield and the Asian owners of the existing Two Double Seven mall yesterday announced a new joint venture to develop a giant $700 million to $900 million super-mall on both sides of Broadway, creating 10,000 new jobs.

But Transit's Auckland regional manager, Wayne McDonald, said no one had told him about the plan, or the idea of a new off-ramp from northbound lanes of the motorway at St Mark's Rd.

"We might push back and say that's not a bright idea," he said.

"Westfield in their previous scheme, and without talking to us and without any indication from us, had happily assumed that someone was going to gift them an off-ramp.

"We were utterly opposed to that. The biggest problem in Auckland right now is the central motorway junction.

"We are spending millions to fix that problem for long-distance travel in Auckland, and the last thing anyone wants in terms of impacting on that capacity would be to fill that with very short-distance travel using all of that new work simply to provide access to a new shopping centre."

Westfield spokesman Matthew Abbott said the partners recognised that there were still "a lot more hurdles to clear" to get planning approvals for the mall.

"Traffic is the major hurdle. We'll be thrashing that out with the relevant authorities," he said.

Mayor John Banks, who first brought Westfield and Two Double Seven together, said a number of options were being investigated, including the off-ramp and "a road looping round the back and maybe over the railway line" to ease congestion in Broadway.

The council's environmental planning manager, Penny Pirrit, said a new road over the railway line might run just from St Mark's Rd to Remuera Rd, or might extend along the length of the Broadway shops to join Broadway or Davis Cres north of Khyber Pass Rd.

Another option was a new north-south road between Broadway and Gillies Ave on the western side of the shops.

"We are going to investigate the feasibility of those two options over the next few months to see if they do provide the results in traffic dispersal and the feasibility of what land acquisition might need to occur," she said.

The president of the Newmarket Protection Society, Robin Bailey, said yesterday that he was pleased that the two rivals had got together.

"The joint venture is a first step towards the rational development of Newmarket," he said after being briefed by the two companies yesterday.

"The traffic issues are the key problem. They have said they are going to look at those. We are going to remain and keep an eye on what they are doing and be involved in their ongoing discussions."

A report to a council committee last week said there were 15,800 people employed in Newmarket at present, including 2370 in retailing.

The Auckland regional manager of the Retailers' Association, Russell Sinclair, said there were about 112,000 people working in Auckland's retail sector as a whole.

He said new malls "don't generate retail business - they rob it from somewhere else."

Michelle McKellar of Two Double Seven owners Auckland One said the new mall would bring "world-class" retailing to Auckland.

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