Golden site for transport terminal

By BERNARD ORSMAN

One of the most valuable blocks of real estate in New Zealand is being flattened to make way for a $211 million transport terminal.

The land, worth about $25 million, is the site for the Britomart underground train station behind the old Chief Post Office in downtown Auckland.

The 150m-long stretch of land, three blocks long and ringed by a fine collection of 20 historic buildings, is handy to the Auckland waterfront.

Two months ago the land housed a bustling bus terminal and busy car park. The Britomart bus terminal has been demolished and a pair of giant jaws are chewing their way through the country's first municipal carpark building, Britomart.

A decision on Monday by Infrastructure Auckland to make a $45 million grant towards the new Britomart almost certainly means the Auckland City Council can start work on the $211 million transport terminal.

By Christmas, excavation work should have started on a 12m-deep hole for the underground railway station. The big dig will cause months of disruption to nearby businesses and motorists as contractors cart fill from the reclaimed land - possibly to be used for the expansion of nearby Fergusson Wharf.

The underground station will stretch from the back of the old Chief Post Office to Britomart Place, where it will be connected to a 506m train tunnel that has already been built at a cost of $16.5 million.

The train station will have four commuter tracks and one intercity track, with provision for two light rail tracks in future. It will be the only underground diesel station in the world, with huge extractor fans to remove smoky fumes.

Along the length of the 150m underground station will be a series of natural light portals rising like volcanic cones into a new public walkway, known as Ta Huhu St. Above ground, about 50 new bus stops will be dotted in streets surrounding the Chief Post Office and Queen Elizabeth Square.

The project is expected to create 1400 jobs during the 18 months of construction, and 40 fulltime jobs at the railway station.

Once the railway station is built and the old Chief Post Office, Queen Elizabeth Square and local streets spruced up, the council will begin a process of selling about 20 historic buildings, in various states of disrepair, which it owns.

Many of the buildings were homes to merchants, shipping agents and traders in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

These days, they are what real estate agents would term "do-ups".

The buildings have a value of about $16 million.

When six development sites are included, the council has surplus land worth about $27 million for transforming the 3.5ha Britomart precinct into an urban village of apartments, offices, shops, restaurants and cafes.

The surplus land is additional to the land needed for construction, which is valued at $24.8 million.

The old buildings and development sites cover about 84,000 sq m - nearly three times the size of St Lukes shopping centre - with extra space for about 710 car parks.

Auckland planning boss John Duthie said the council had not decided what to do with the proceeds from the sale of the surplus buildings and land.

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