Mall giant tries gentler approach in Newmarket

By ANNE GIBSON

A big Australian mall owner has bowed to fierce community opposition and dramatically scaled back its plans for a huge retail complex in one of Auckland's busiest shopping districts.

Westfield is looking at slashing $150 million from its $450 million budget and making several other radical changes to its proposal for a mega-mall in Newmarket.

The mall's height has been reduced from the planned 11 levels to only two or three, the controversial 25m-long multistorey airbridge over Nuffield St has been abandoned and a community consultation room has been established.

The number of shops planned has been reduced from more than 200 to 160, carparks are down from 3000 to 2500 and floor area down from 65,000msup2 to 45,000msup2.

But opponents remain dissatisfied, saying the existing shopping strip will be threatened and traffic jams made much worse by any new mall.

The revised designs would only be finalised after "extensive community consultation", said Westfield New Zealand director John Widdup. This could take about three months.

Westfield spokeswoman Sue Warren emphasised that nothing had been decided yet and final plans would depend on what the community wanted.

The new plans were just "design options to stimulate and lead discussion", she said.

The plans no longer show an internal-facing structure. Instead, the "important, people-friendly space, enlivened with entertainment and cafes", would look out onto Nuffield St, said Mr Widdup.

Westfield has set up its Nuffield Street Development Centre in ground floor offices of the former Mercury Energy Building, near the corner of Nuffield St and Remuera Rd.

People are being asked to visit it and let Westfield know what they think about the proposal.

Major alterations are shown to the controversial airbridge over Nuffield St - plans show the airbridge gone or turned into a glazed thoroughfare, a far cry from the original proposal for a multi-level airbridge turning the street into a dark tunnel.

Last year, Westfield announced plans to spend $450 million on the mall, to be more than twice as large as St Lukes. It would have occupied a 4.3ha site, included 12 cinemas, 3000 carparks and spanned the railway line, Nuffield Lane and Nuffield St.

Westfield applied to Auckland City for a private plan change to rezone the development site, which would have allowed the mall to be built.

But it withdrew the application this year before it went to a full council meeting.

Auckland One, another Newmarket mall developer, is pushing ahead fast with the revamp of the existing Two Double Seven mall.

It is spending $300 million to expand the existing shopping centre to bring 3341 carparks, 200 shops and 50,000msup2 of retail space.

Auckland One is controlled by elderly Chinese businessman Denis Jen.

Westfield's opponents are against even an altered mall, but support Auckland One.

Robin Bailey, chairman of anti-mall campaigners the Newmarket Protection Society, said the organisation remained opposed to Westfield's mall proposals and that traffic issues had to be sorted out before it was built.

"Even a scaled-down mall doesn't address the problems of traffic," he said. "A mall could be detrimental to the survival of the existing strip."

Darryl Henry, chairman of the Newmarket Business Association, is also opposed to Westfield securing air rights over the railway line, which he says should not be sold in the midst of negotiations to resolve Auckland's traffic problems.

Marie Franklin, aged 80, who campaigned to stop the mega-mall in Newmarket and lives a block away, remains opposed to any mall.

"My two big grizzles are the traffic problems here and the fact that there are too many shops in Newmarket already," she said. "I am opposed to any mall on that site because the area is a bottleneck already."

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