The Golf Warehouse proposal for AF Thomas Park, home of the Takapuna Golf Club, looking south. A new Eventfinda Stadium is in the foreground, with its carpark on the site of the current stadium. The wetland is to the left, with a nine-hole golf course beyond. A driving range and pickleball centre are at the top of the park.
Is this the plan golfers, residents, politicians, and floodwater planners have been waiting for on the North Shore?
Golfing retailer Golf Warehouse has announced a $20 million proposal to redevelop Takapuna Golf Course and the publicly owned A.F. Thomas Park on which it sits.
Golf Warehouse wants to build a new “world-class” nine-hole course, with a new driving range, new community stadium to replace the at-risk Eventfinda Stadium, and a variety of other recreation and sporting facilities.
At present, the council has resolved to close the park and redevelop about a third of it into a wetland and general recreation area. This will serve as a “detention sink” in times of flooding.
The park is sandwiched between the Wairau Valley and the suburb of Milford, both scenes of some of the worst flooding over Auckland Anniversary Weekend 2023.
When this work is done, the rest of the park will be the responsibility of the Kaipātiki Local Board. One option for the board will be to adopt the Golf Warehouse plan, which transforms 28.7ha of the park into a series of “recreation zones”. These include:
Eric Faesenkloet, Golf Warehouse owner and long-term North Shore resident, says the plan has been in development for two years. He calls it “a once-in-a-generation opportunity to redevelop and enhance A.F. Thomas Park into a multi-purpose community hub for sports, recreation and entertainment that Aucklanders can be proud of”.
Faesenkloet says, “I’m pleased the council has now confirmed a solution that protects lives and infrastructure for future flooding events, and I believe a smart plan like ours not only provides exceptional new golfing facilities but also addresses a surge in demand for other sports like basketball, gymnastics, pickleball, cycling and skateboarding.”
He’s sympathetic to the desire of golfers wanting to retain an 18-hole course, but doesn’t believe that’s a realistic option. Council officials recently rejected a last-gasp proposal by the Takapuna Golf Club to save the existing course with what it called “the Shoal Bay Solution”. This involved a big new drainage pipe under the motorway, to pump water out to Shoal Bay near the harbour bridge.
The NZ Transport Agency, local iwi, independent consultants and Mayor Wayne Brown were all opposed to that plan.
“We don’t support any option that would negatively impact the state highway given its nationally significant function,” said NZTA.
Brown called it “haywire stuff” and added, “There is plenty of evidence that this is not a serious suggestion”.
“We recognise that regular players of Takapuna Golf Course would ideally like to retain 18 holes,” says Faesenkloet, “but given the area constraints of the new site, we do not believe this is now viable, particularly in regard to safety”.
He says, “The way we play golf has changed significantly in the last decade. Our proposal ... provides a pathway for golfers of every age and ability.”
One of the barriers to earlier attempts to keep the 18-hole course has been the fate of Eventfinda Stadium, a community sport and recreation facility on the Shore that has 500,000 users a year.
The stadium is home to Harbour Basketball and North Harbour Gymnastics and hosts about 1000 children after school every day, training and playing sport. It flooded badly in 2023, and its chief executive, Brian Blake, has previously told the Herald it now risks losing its insurance cover. If that happened, it would have to close.
Blake says replacing the stadium is essential, and he’s welcomed the proposal from Golf Warehouse. “The current venue is 33 years old, in need of an expensive roof and is still susceptible to flood damage, which in 2023 cost $6 million in repairs.
“Golf Warehouse’s proposal will see us able to build a larger venue on a new site to prevent flood damage in the future. I really hope the community gets behind this proposal because it ticks so many boxes for what we need.”
Faesenkloet says Golf Warehouse will invest about $20 million into the development, without the need for any public funding. But it would also mean a public asset – the park – is leased to a private company, which would then operate it privately.
The park has been leased to the Takapuna Golf Club for many years, but this proposal would significantly upgrade that arrangement.
“This will not be a cheap exercise by any means,” says Faesenkloet. “But if successful, our business will privately fund the entire project whilst maximising returns to ratepayers with a higher return to council than the current lease arrangement.”
Richard Hills, the local councillor and also chair of the council’s policy and planning committee, says, “It’s great to see progressive ideas coming forward which acknowledge the need to address flooding, improve biodiversity, provide significant recreation space for the community and also invest significant funding into new golf facilities.”
The Kaipātiki Local Board, like the rest of the council, faces an election, with voting papers being delivered to households this week. Results will be announced on October 11, after which the new board should be in a position to begin public consultation on the future of the park.
Faesenkloet has called on the board to include his proposal “as an option for community feedback”.
Hills says the proposal “gives the community who feel anxious about this project at least a vision of what’s possible, and I look forward to the local board hearing from the community on what they see is important for this reserve.”
Faesenkloet says, “What’s really important to us is maintaining or improving excellent golfing facilities, but also incorporating as many other growing sporting codes into this precinct without compromising the open green space. We want everyone to benefit from this project.”
Simon Wilson is an award-winning senior writer covering politics, the climate crisis, transport, housing, urban design and social issues, with a focus on Auckland. He joined the Herald in 2018.