SIMON ODDIE works for Eke Panuku, the council development arm with a big stake in the success of the city centre. Right now, he’s looking past the road cones and construction mess to a brighter future.
JEREMY HANSEN Simon, you’re the Priority Location Director for the city centre, working for Eke Panuku, Auckland Council’s development arm. What does your job entail?
SIMON ODDIE I focus on the regeneration of the city centre. That covers many aspects, from social wellbeing outcomes through to the delivery of big infrastructure projects and economic development outcomes. My role is primarily focused on how we as a council group can bring all of those different strands together to create a thriving city centre.
JEREMY HANSEN There are a couple of key documents that underpin the work you and others are doing in the central city. Can you talk briefly about what they are?
SIMON ODDIE The first is the City Centre Masterplan. It’s a visionary document for the city centre that sets out a 20-year aspiration. It has a set of 10 outcomes within it and some suggested transformational moves, big things that we can do that will uplift and transform the city centre. Some of them are happening at the moment: the plan envisaged a green link from Albert Park all the way through to Victoria Park and down into Wynyard Quarter, and we’re seeing that come to life through Te Hā Noa work on Victoria Street. Eventually there’ll be this great green link all the way from Albert Park through to Wynyard Quarter and eventually to Te Ara Tukutuku, the new headland park.
JEREMY HANSEN There’s also a City Centre Action Plan. How does that fit in with the Masterplan?
SIMON ODDIE The City Centre Masterplan is a long-term, high-level document, so we needed something that took those aspirations and made them tangible and actionable. The Action Plan is the document we’ve created to ensure the different organisations involved in delivering the Masterplan – Auckland Transport, Auckland Council and Eke Panuku – have an integrated approach with key actions prioritised.
JEREMY HANSEN I’m thinking about ways the central city has changed since the Masterplan was created in 2012 – especially the acceleration of flexible working and the effect that has had on offices.
SIMON ODDIE We’ve had some pretty big contextual changes in the city centre on the back of the pandemic. In the development of the action plan, we talked to a number of stakeholders around the city centre to understand what had changed – especially the way flexible working is becoming embedded. One thing that became obvious was that to attract people into the office, it’s about the experience that the office environment and the central city itself offers. That gives a strong emphasis to creating attractive, vibrant spaces for people who come into work to enjoy. It’s become much more important than we have probably previously given it credit for.
JEREMY HANSEN What changes do you think that requires in the central city? Because when you talk about the spaces that enhance people’s daily experiences, there are a good number of those down beside the water and also Freyberg Square, but it feels like midtown in particular is challenged in that sense at the moment. Would you agree with that?
SIMON ODDIE I think we’ve had a huge amount of investment going into the waterfront area. The development of Te Komititanga and Commercial Bay, the work that’s been done within the Britomart precinct, Te Wānanga, the new public space on the waterfront: they’re key street upgrades that have created a vibrant area within the city centre that people just love to visit.
Now we’ve shifted our efforts to the midtown area: the work we’re doing around Te Waihorotiu station, around Wellesley and Victoria Streets in particular, to create a more people-friendly neighborhood. There will be more walkable routes, wider footpaths, more space for people, and better public transport with City Rail Link and high-frequency buses on Wellesley Street.
You’ll see the transformation that’s happening and that’s been uncovered on Victoria Street with Te Hā Noa. Wellesley Street is going to be a bus-priority corridor to enable higher-frequency buses into the city centre and to connect with Te Waihorotiu station. There is also the over-station development. The Symphony Centre is a key component of that – it’s something that we haven’t really seen in New Zealand before in that it’s making the most of enhancing the density of residences and workplaces around stations. There’s an accompanying redevelopment of the neighbouring Bledisloe House, a nice heritage structure. So you’re getting the makings of a really strong neighbourhood in that area, a really strong precinct, with private-sector developments, public streetscapes, public transport connections, and the arts quarter right on your doorstep.
JEREMY HANSEN That all sounds great, but right next to it all you have SkyWorld, the IMAX theatre complex that is all but dead. And across from that is the site of the St James Theatre, which has been closed for what seems like forever. I know these sites aren’t directly Eke Panuku’s responsibility, but they are large and significant black holes in that area.
SIMON ODDIE The opportunity with both of those sites is immense. We won’t ever have the capital to buy SkyWorld and redevelop it ourselves; that’s not our role. The role that we can play as a public sector set of organisations is to use levers that we have – which include investment in the public realm and street network, and the services that we can provide around that area – to help make that an attractive place for investment.
JEREMY HANSEN If you’re talking about investment, Auckland feels like it has no money at the moment. Does that threaten the improvements you’re talking about now?
SIMON ODDIE The City Centre Action Plan has given us a clear focus on doing things right to really maximise the benefit we get from the huge investment that’s going into City Rail Link in these areas, whether that be through better public transport connections, the development potential or the urban realm. The council group is committed to delivering those. We’re also lucky in the city centre to have the City Centre Targeted Rate, which funds about $25 million a year that can only be spent in the city centre. So we’ve at least got a dedicated bucket of funding for the city centre that can help with the regeneration program. A lot of the streetscape enhancements that you see around the city centre have been funded through the targeted rate: it’s contributed to Quay Street, Te Komititanga, Federal Street and the Te Hā Noa upgrades as well.
JEREMY HANSEN The opening of the new International Convention Centre is also finally on the horizon, which made me think about how the street environment in that part of town is pretty degraded – not only for the users of the centre, but for the many residents there as well.
SIMON ODDIE Everyone’s very excited about that opening. Sky City and the developers are committing to upgrading the streetscape outside the NZICC. Over the longer term, improvements to Nelson and Hobson Streets aren’t currently funded within the 10 years, but we’ll be looking at what we do with those streets and creating some solid plans. At the moment those streets create a bit of a disconnect with the other parts of the city centre such as the Victoria Quarter area. They’re also densely populated, and one of the priorities within our action plan is around increasing and supporting the residential population in the city centre, because we know that’s fundamental to its ongoing success.
JEREMY HANSEN One of the things we’ve seen with the advent of flexible working is an increase in the vacancy rates of lower-grade office space. Are there opportunities to facilitate the transition of those buildings to residences, where appropriate?
SIMON ODDIE That’s something we’re looking into at the moment. It’s not something we can directly influence, but it comes back to creating an attractive environment to invest in. When we think about increasing the residential population of the central city, there’s any number of levers that we can look to pull. What’s the type of environment that attracts people to want to live here? What can we then do to enhance that environment and its amenities? A city centre school is a thing that gets asked for a lot, for example, and that’s something we’re actively engaged with the Ministry of Education on. As well as that, do we have enough amenities to support families wanting to live within the city centre? Are there enough green spaces and spaces for play? That’s all on our radar and will be informing where we prioritise our spend over the next seven to 10 years.
JEREMY HANSEN Let’s cast our minds forward. The City Rail Link has opened, whenever that will be. What does the city look like then to you?
SIMON ODDIE We’ll have three amazing stations and station neighbourhoods within the city centre, and we’ll have thousands more people coming out of those stations and into the city centre. Te Waihorotiu will be the busiest train station in the country. We’ll be seeing the Symphony Centre development over the station about halfway through construction in 2026. There’ll still be a bit of disruption around but people will be understanding then the potential of what those developments have to actually offer the city centre. We’ll be seeing enhanced environments for people, and more people out on the streets enjoying public life. We’ll see people getting greater access into the university through the CRL and the increased bus services coming down Wellesley Street. So I see more people, happier people, more connected people within the city centre. You’ll have a sense of atmosphere unlike any other city centres in new Zealand.
JEREMY HANSEN Why are city centres important?
SIMON ODDIE There are multiple ways to answer this, so we can go through a few of them. Economically Auckland’s city centre is hugely important to the wider city, the region and New Zealand, accounting for 9 percent of national GDP and 20 percent of Auckland’s GDP. It’s been the fastest-growing economic centre in the country over the past couple of years. But the value is more than just dollars and cents. One of the reasons why I chose to live here is because of what it has to offer. That can’t be matched anywhere else. The restaurants and shows you can go to, the Waitematā Harbour on our doorstep. It’s just a great place to come for a whole range of diverse experiences you would never see anywhere else.
BUILDING A BETTER CITY
CENTRAL CITY DEVELOPMENTS SIMON ODDIE IS EXCITED ABOUT
1. THE CITY RAIL LINK The exact opening date is still to be confirmed, but it can’t come soon enough. What’s going to be fascinating is to see the way the CRL changes the city, in ways expected and not. A rendering of Te Waihorotiu Station on Wellesley Street and Albert Street is shown at right.
2. THE SYMPHONY CENTRE A new building above Te Waihorotiu Station that stretches towards Aotea Square and will contain a mix of offices and apartments. Architecturally ambitious (designed by Woods Bagot), and a new residential destination for what’s recently been one of the most challenged parts of the central city.
3. TE HĀ NOA The transformation of Victoria Street into a ‘linear park’ with wider footpaths, more public space and denser planting is the first stage in what’s envisaged to be a green corridor that will eventually connect Albert Park with Wynyard Quarter.
