Council's Relentless Waterfront Sale

"Where is Auckland Council's Waterfront Masterplan?" is the question I asked nobody in particular as I read NZ Herald's apparently innocuous news item about the sale of the Hilton Hotel on Princes Wharf.




The article ran in Granny Herald within the August 3rd Business section.

".....The five-star boutique Hilton Auckland has been put up for sale in an international campaign but its American operator will continue to run it and the property will stay a Hilton.

Dean Humphries, Jones Lang LaSalle Hotels' executive vice-president, who was appointed to sell the property exclusively said Hilton Hotels would manage it for the new owner as part of its operations here, which also include Hiltons at Taupo and Queenstown.

Brian Fitzgerald, an investor, said the property belonged to a number of parties including Willeston Capital.

"It's a great time to sell, never better. You won't sell just because of Rugby World Cup but it's performing well," Fitzgerald said.

Auckland Council records shows the Hilton, at 141 Quay St, was valued at $44.6 million in July 2008.

Its top floor is the quarter-acre apartment of bankrupt property developer David Henderson, whose Kitchener Group developed all six buildings on the wharf, creating bars, restaurants, covered carparking, apartments, offices and the hotel. Henderson still lives in the apartment, despite attempts to sell it for about $10 million.

All the wharf properties are on terminating leases, set to run for another 84 years, so that after then the buildings have no legal right to occupy the wharf space.

Hilton's restaurant White has been shut for some time as it undergoes a refurbishment and is expected to have a new name when it reopens.

Humphries said the ground-floor Overseas Passenger Terminal in the building was part of the sale deal.

That made me sit up. The Overseas Passenger Terminal on Princes Wharf is apparently up for sale along with the Hilton Hotel. Makes sense I suppose. One careful owner since 2001. Lock and stock and barrel up for sale.

The history of how this all got built, and shifted from public ownership and into private control is not a happy history - especially if you believe there needs to be much more in the way of a destination focus for Auckland's 1.4 million people down there. How many councillors understand that even council's own plans for Princes Wharf redevelopment included art galleries, museums, and a cinema.

Have a look at this if you need reminding: How Sad is Princes Wharf?, and How Sad is Princes Wharf - Part II

But I digress. Back to Granny Herald's story:

Humphries said the ground-floor Overseas Passenger Terminal in the building was part of the sale deal.

"This also acts as a conference and exhibition centre for the hotel.

So. Here we have the agent acting on behalf of the owners, talking up the alternative uses of what we know as Auckland's Overseas Passenger Terminal. So. Auckland didn't get a cinema, or a museum, or much else in the way of public waterfront amenity on Princes Wharf. The cruise ship industry has turned its nose up at the facilities it has had access to and use of for close to a decade. And now it's apparently for sale. So where are they going to go? Read further on in the story...

"Auckland Council has indicated that the passenger terminal will move to Queens Wharf in the 2012-13 cruise ship season, which will therefore allow the hotel to utilise this space more efficiently during future cruise ship seasons."

Man oh man. So that's the deal. Without even a whiff of a Waterfront Masterplan, Auckland Council has indicated that the passenger terminal will move to Queens Wharf.

So. Auckland's relentless and destructive policy of privatising waterfront amenity is still alive and well under King Len and his happy Councillors. And I thought the whole reason for having a Waterfront Development Agency was to take an integrated look at Auckland's whole waterfront.

This piecemeal sale of Princes Wharf is an injury by itself, but if that sale also inevitably leads to the sale of much of Queens Wharf's amenity to the cruise ship industry, then it will be an insult to Auckland.