'They are killing us': Business owners along Auckland's City Rail Link construction site close doors permanently

Monday, 26 July 2021

Andy Ariano is closing the doors on his restaurant Da Vinci’s in central Auckland after a decade. He says he is a victim of the Auckland City Rail Link construction works which have killed his business.

Owners of businesses living with the Albert St City Rail Link construction have a clear message for Labour MP Helen White: “They are killing us.”

White met with the owners in the Da Vinci Restaurant on Friday to compile a report on their experiences to take to Transport Minister Michael Wood, who is weighing up their plea for financial support.

Andy Ariano hosted the meeting at his restaurant, Da Vinci’s, which he had operated in Albert St for a decade.

The following day he served his last meal there, closing the doors forever.

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Andy Ariano closed the doors on his restaurant Da Vinci’s in Auckland’s Albert St after a decade.

Construction noise, dust, sewer smells and the dismal, shabby passageways left for pedestrians have driven diners to seek more pleasant places to eat.

“I did my best to keep these doors open but if I go further, they will take my house,” Ariano told White.

“Who is next? I don’t know but one of them,” he said, gesturing to the other business owners.

On Sunday, a truck came to clear the furniture from Da Vinci's to go to the auctioneer.

The furniture from Da Vinci’s restaurant was packed into a truck on Sunday to be sent to auction.

His was not the first business to go from the area, unable to continue paying high city centre rents and rates after their customers were driven away, White was told.

In 2019, at least six Albert St owners had already shut amid calls for compensation.

Others were teetering on the edge, with some owners so ground down by the stress and noise that they were on antidepressants and needed pills to sleep.

Andy Ariano, right, listens to Labour MP Helen White at a meeting on Friday.

“What really upsets me is the arrogance of the people in charge of this project. They know what they have done to us,” Ariano told White.

The Albert St work was meant to be “substantially completed” by September last year.

“I am really crying inside,” he said.

“It creates hatred. I am not the same person I was.

Businesses in Victoria St West and Albert St in central Auckland have signs up begging politicians to take notice of their plight.

“What is happening here is not a mistake. It is happening on purpose.”

White said she had not heard anything from Wood that was not positive about solving the situation.

“I repeatedly go in and ask what the progress is and the answer is it is in the pipeline,” White said.

“This is no longer a retail precinct,” says local businessman Alex Law. “People are not willing to shop and eat amidst so much noise, dust and disruption.”

“It isn’t that nothing is happening. Things take longer than you want them to but I am doing everything I can to push the issue.”

Signs asking why Wood will not meet with the owners are prominent in some shop windows.

Auckland mayor Phil Goff also features in protest window displays.

Shobhana Ranchhodji outside her florist shop Roma Blooms in Albert St in Auckland. The sign behind her says businesses are still open but few people are coming to them.

He has agreed to meet the business owners on Wednesday but media are barred from attending.

Viv Beck, chief executive of Heart of the City, said Goff had told her he supported the creation of a hardship fund for business owners but that the Government must take the lead.

“All roads really are now leading to the Government,” Beck said.

“We have said to Michael Wood he needs to come and see for himself.”

White told owners the Cabinet would have to make a decision on whether to approve funding.

Graffiti, rubbish and drinking has worsened since the construction works turned a once pleasant retail zone into a noisy mess, business owners say.

“You might not get everything you want but I think there will be a solution put to you. I keep thinking it is just round the corner but I don’t want to give you false hope.”

The owners said they wanted rent and rates relief backdated to reflect the costs they had incurred.

They said they also wanted to be listened to, because they feared a repeat of gestures such as being handed ear protectors, or being offered $2000 worth of mental wellbeing services, when the cause of their mental distress grinds relentlessly on, with the end date being pushed further out.

“[Wood] needs to listen to us. He cannot think he knows what we might need. He needs to see what we are going through on a daily basis,” said Shobhana Ranchhodji, owner of florist Roma Blooms on the corner of Albert Stand Victoria St West.

“It has never been about what we are saying we need,” she said.

“This community is broken. Michael Wood needs to come to see the damage to this community.”

The business owners said a hardship fund created in 2019 was designed to limit cost.

Removal men check they have left nothing behind in Da Vinci’s restaurant.

Alex Law said business owners fronting the construction site, like his own Photo Image in Victoria St, were told they did not qualify because were outside the construction zone.

If the Government delegated decision-making to the people running the City Rail Link project “they will come up with some stupid, stupid rule which means I do not qualify”, Law said.

“They are killing us. They are killing us,” he said.

ACT MP Simon Court, who attended the meeting, slammed the Government for its inaction despite Heart of the City presenting a compensation proposal to it in January.

“This has been on the Government’s desk for five months. We know if it is important to the Government then it can turn on a dime and announce money for projects,” Court said.

That included $685 million for a new bridge for walkers and cyclists crossing Auckland’s Waitematā Harbour, which was announced five days after cycling lobbyists broke through a police barrier and rode over the harbour bridge.

This is the dismal alleyway diners were expected to traverse to get to Da Vinci’s.

“My impression is you are just not important to this Government,” Court said.

Beck said providing support for businesses was in line with international projects of the scale of the City Rail Link.

A figure of $50m had been spoken of for the hardship fund.

Vijay Chauhan, the 34-year-old owner of the Taj Mahal restaurant in Victoria St, said: “I came here today because I wanted to hear some hope.”

He said he had tried to give his business away as a way of escaping from a lease he could no longer afford to pay but nobody wanted it. He feared bankruptcy.

“Impacting our businesses is one thing. It is impacting our lives as well,” Chauhan said.

He was seeing a counsellor, and had been prescribed sleeping pills and antidepressants.

He told White he had not opened the Taj Mahal in 23 days.

“I am gone basically. I am still here. Next time you might not see me,” he said.

Law said the businesses were worthless. “People have put their whole lives into these businesses. These should be saleable businesses.”

“We can’t just walk away. We have leases.

“Our businesses are open 8am to 6.30pm. We have to endure it all day.”

One frustrated business owner asked White, “what do we have to do? Do we have to be a gang member?”

That was a reference to the Government announcing $2.75m for a Mongrel Mob-led rehabilitation programme.

White said the question was a “cheap shot”.

Before the meeting closed, White promised to send the owners a copy of her report to Wood.

Ranchhodji said any proposal from the Government must not exclude business owners like Ariano, who had lost their businesses.

“My wish is that nobody else has to go through this,” Ariano said.