Highway option stalls Carlaw Park league plan

By BERNARD ORSMAN

Plans for the eastern highway tunnel to pop up at the halfway line on Carlaw Park are jeopardising a $250 million commercial development by the Auckland Rugby League.

Chairman Cameron McGregor says plans to turn Carlaw Park into a campus, apartments, offices and a hotel have been on hold since the league discovered it was in the path of the highway.

The eastern corridor political steering group will tomorrow recommend whether the highway should come into downtown Auckland through a 3.5km tunnel under Parnell, coming up at Carlaw Park, or across Hobson Bay and a widened Tamaki Drive.

Auckland City Mayor John Banks prefers the Parnell option as less environmentally disruptive, although tunnelling would add $400 million to $600 million to the cost.

The Parnell option would also provide better traffic connections to the city, waterfront and the Northwestern and Northern Motorways.

Mr McGregor said the commercial development was expected to earn the league between $5 million and $6 million a year to help its 33 clubs and more than 10,000 players.

"Here was our golden opportunity to put the game on a fantastic financial footing so we could help our clubs."

He said his greatest fear was that the Parnell option would be chosen, but nothing would happen for 10 years because of the highway's $4 billion cost, leaving Carlaw Park undeveloped and the league out of pocket.

Mr McGregor said felt deflated, especially after local politics killed plans in 2002 for a $97 million stadium development at Carlaw Park.

After that debacle, the league started planning a two-stage commercial development in conjunction with Auckland property company Willis Bond & Co. Work was well advanced when the league learned of the tunnel option in February.

Stage one, involving an education campus, a hotel and offices connected across Stanley St by a walkway and costing $100 million to $120 million, could be completed by the end of next year. Stage two included about 360 apartments and parking facilities.

Auckland University's director of property services, Maurice Matthewson, said the university, a short walk from Carlaw Park, would be interested if the development went ahead.

Wayne Silver, of Willis Bond, said it would be a shame for Carlaw Park to be gobbled up for a four-lane highway when it could become a high-quality development nestled up against the Auckland Domain.

The Auckland Business Forum has attacked the Government and Transit for not guaranteeing future support for the $3-4 billion highway.

Forum leaders Michael Barnett, Auckland Chamber of Commerce chief executive, and Alasdair Thompson, head of the Employers and Manufacturers Association (Northern), said the Government seemed to be giving up on Auckland.

They said it was reprehensible that the Government was reporting a $7.4 billion surplus and showing no urgency to get its $1.6 billion transport package brought forward.

Transport Minister Pete Hodgson said last week the transport package included nothing for the eastern highway. Transit is not guaranteeing support now that hundreds of millions of dollars are needed to proceed to the next stage.