Park and Rides with apartments above move closer in Auckland

Monday, 14 September 2020

Expansion of the Silverdale Park and Ride in 2018 could go to a new level with apartments built in its airspace.

Nine Auckland park and ride facilities could have apartments and commercial premises built above them, with private developers already exploring the possibilities.

Auckland councillors on Thursday are expected to give the green light to pressing ahead with the idea, which an earlier assessment had estimated could create $1 billion worth of development.

The work by Auckland Transport and the council’s development arm Panuku, envisages spreading the projects across the next 20 years.

“Potentially significant opportunities have remained untapped to date,” said a report to the Finance and Performance committee.

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A 2015 concept for Constellation Station proposed a 15-storey apartment building and 999 park and ride spaces

The sites are above train station parking areas at Orakei, Manurewa, Homai, Sturges Road, Papakura, and bus stations at Constellation Drive, Albany and Silverdale, as well as Manurewa’s Selwyn Road carpark.

The idea has moved slowly inside the council, with one concept study in 2015 proposing 359 apartments above the Constellation Drive station parking area, with an estimated $30 million profit to council.

Stuff reported in October 2018 that Panuku had already been approached by developers.

The Silverdale Park and Ride carpark is a typical example of the potential development sites

'A number of credible development companies have approached AT enquiring about the prospect of partnering, to progress one or more of these park and ride development opportunities,' wrote Panuku's then chief operating officer David Rankin.

'In addition to the recent approaches made to AT, Panuku has had considerable market interest in sites used as car parks in Panuku priority development locations,' he said.

The papers released to Stuff in 2018 showed AT had been debating for years behind closed doors on how to fund the expansion of its park and ride network.

The latest proposal specified that the transport part of any redevelopment would remain in council ownership.

“The land on which AT operate park and rides is typically single use with untapped potential in which large amounts of capital is locked up,” said the report.

“Sites with latent development potential can be optimised, unlocking the value to provide funding for reinvestment back into the transport network,” it said.

The programme also aimed to create housing density around transport nodes, as well as creating walkable communities with better access to alternatives to cars.

Panuku will lead the work, if councillors approve the plan, with the development sites split into several groups to be staged over a couple of decades.

A tenth potential site on Symonds Street is also listed in one part of the report, but is not being recommended for approval this week.