Wharves over troubled water: $70m stoush brewing between Auckland Council and port

Sunday, 6 April 2025

A major redevelopment of two downtown wharves in Auckland is up for consultation, but it’s already proving to be a polarising proposal fraught with issue, writes Jonathan Killick.

Next weekend Auckland Council’s development arm Eke Panuku will embark upon a four-week waterfront consultation bonanza featuring a comedy improv troupe, performing DJs and an egg-shaped recording booth.

It’s a novel new approach at engaging Aucklanders not even seen for the likes of the council’s annual budget or 10-year plan, and it’s in service of a proposal to redevelop Captain Cook and Marsden wharves following a sale to the city by Ports of Auckland.

Here’s the issue - nobody can say for certain that the sale will actually happen, with Mayor Wayne Brown and Ports chief executive Roger Gray at odds over the details, along with a raft of other ‘strategic risks’.

Not least of which being that Gray has told the council in no uncertain terms that there will be no sale unless Ports gets a resource consent to extend Bledisloe Wharf where it handles vehicle imports - that’s before the fast-track process.

At stake is Brown’s re-election campaign, having already promised prior to this term to unlock the waterfront for Aucklanders, originally going as far as trying to oust the port altogether. The question is how that promise will affect negotiations, and where he will find required finances from a cash-strapped council.

Speaking to the Sunday Star-Times Brown says with confidence that the port will be handing over the wharves free of charge.

“It’s just a book entry mate… It’s like if I sold one of my buildings to my son, there would be a book entry but there would be no actual money [exchange],” he says.

Port chief Roger Gray couldn’t disagree more. He insists the wharves are worth at least $70 million, and he’s bound by the Port Companies Act to realise that value.

“We have been very clear with the city that this deal would be a commercial transaction at market value… To simply give something away isn’t acting in the commercial best interest of the port,” he tells the Star-Times.

Beyond a joke?

From April 12 to May 3 Eke Panuku is asking Aucklanders for “blue sky ideas” about what they might like to see built on the wharves, and they’ve enlisted the help of an improv comedy troup to give “theatrical walking tours”.

It’ll also be accompanied by live DJs, singers including Julia Deans and Anna Coddington, as well as Captain Festus McBoyle performing hits from his album Ships n’ Giggles.

The innovative engagement might be considered admirable if the troupe of performers weren’t juggling such a hot political potato.

Waitematā councillor Mike Lee calls the offer of the wharves “the mayor’s consolation prize, a political fig leaf”.

“A rather small fig leaf for the mayor who came into office talking a big game about moving the port out of Auckland… [and] it’s going to cost the ratepayers a lot of money.”

Speaking from Japan, Waitākere ward councillor Ken Turner tells the Star-Times he’s more interested in supporting a functioning port.

“We have some of the most stunning shoreline in the world and another few hundred metres of it is not a priority in my world.”

When the redevelopment first came up for discussion in August last year, a media release drafted by communications staffers from the mayor’s office had him quoted as saying there was potential for “a water-based amphitheatre for maritime events” and “an international event and exhibition venue”.

Renders show a volcano-esque auditorium, large theatre screens and large crowds entertained by fireworks.

But speaking to the Star-Times this week, Brown disavows those comments, saying “they weren’t my grand images, they were Eke Panuku’s”.

He says he would prefer to see a straightforward mixed use development with “people, pubs, restaurants and shops”.

“What’s wrong with that? … Another Hilton on the end there would be good.”

Brown was surprised to hear of the “blue sky” consultation.

“One of the reasons we’re getting rid of Eke Panuku is them going and doing that without telling the mayor.”

But, Brown remains firm that he wants to bring back the waterfront for Aucklanders, including another “Browny’s pool” like the one at Karanga Plaza.

“I want about five of those next time,” he says.

Albany ward councillor John Watson makes the comment at a workshop: “Unless we are trying to make an early run for the next Olympics I think we are probably well supplied in pools.”

No cruisy deal

Meanwhile, Eke Panuku is limping along with the wharves project while also having to dedicate resource to “reform”, reintegrating itself into Auckland Council at the behest of councillors.

It keeps a “risk register” which reveals the issues at hand and the many stakeholders it has to please.

It fears a “lack of alignment” between local iwi - that’s likely in light of a long-running Environment Court battle over Westhaven Marina and which group has “primacy” over input into cultural artwork and signs.

There’s the question of what to do with The Cloud - a temporary structure on Queens Wharf which has long outlived its due date - and whether to restore Shed 11.

Brown calls the waterfront heritage sheds “hideous boxes of crap”.

And, then there’s the issue of how to accommodate increasingly larger cruise ships, which have been generating headlines for causing delays to commuter ferries.

Eke Panuku has identified an opportunity to move ships away from Queens and Princes wharves and onto Captain Cook Wharf as a solution, but acknowledges there’s disagreement between council and the port about paying for an upgrade.

Brown tells the Star-Times “it won’t be council… If the ports want to have ships coming in that they want to make money out of it’s their problem, not mine.”

Says Gray: “It’s a sale… the port board will not commit to extending something we don’t own.”

Besides which, the port is already investing in its own $120m upgrade of Bledisloe Wharf, which will include a cruise terminal.

“It’s going to be an amazing new gateway to the city, [instead] of the Hilton board room, which is a terrible customer experience,” says Gray.

And, amid all these discussions of how to redevelop the wharves, the council is already sitting on a vacant wharf at Wynyard Point, slated for an inner-city park that remains unfunded.

The Star-Times understands a private investor approached council with a $300m proposal for the land, but when asked, Brown dismisses it as just “a pretty shape of a building … another lemon if I’ve ever seen one.”

Then what if the ports don’t get the fast-tracked consent for Bledisloe and the proposed wharves deal is off? We’ve recently seen with controversially rejected apartments on Karangahape Rd that commissioners don’t always side with public or political opinion.

“That was a stupid situation where we handed things over to lunatics who have become independent commissioners … we will reverse [the decision] one way or another,” says Brown.

Is it any wonder Eke Panuku ultimately landed on its open-ended “blue sky” consultation?

And, will we see the mayor join the festivities down on Queens Wharf?

“Unlikely,” he says.