$300 million plan to transform former harbourside industrial site into Auckland's newest public park

A former harbourside petro-chemical site, cleared for the city’s last America’s Cup hosting, is to be transformed into Auckland’s newest public park.

Auckland Council will soon consider plans by Eke Panuku, its development and property agency, to transform the former ‘tank farm’ in the Wynyard quarter into a five hectare public park.

Creating what would be Auckland's first new central city park in 100 years, the $300 million plan would develop Wynyard Point over 15 years in what has been described by RNZ as “the most challenging phase of the entire Auckland waterfront development”.

The plan proposes that the land taken up by the America's Cup will initially be used as pop up zones; with some areas retained as part of the marine precinct; while old tank farm will be decontaminated and turned into a park.

The headland juts out from the Wynyard quarter and Silo Park and is surrounded by water on three sides, with views of the harbour bridge, Devonport, the Waitemata Harbour and the city itself.

With the likely departure overseas of the next America’s Cup defence having accelerated plans to find new uses for the waterfront space, Eke Panuku’s Waterfront Location Director, Fiona Knox told RNXZ this week “the whole headland is 10 hectares, five of which will be future public open space that we're planning for.

"The remainder will be development sites over time, street networks and there will be a big linear stretch in front of the bases, that will link back to Daldy St, link back to Victoria Park. So we're creating this big long green connection from the top of the peninsula back to the city centre".

Explaining that before redevelopment starts, the old petrochemical tank farm site has to be decontaminated, Knox added “there's lots of work to do to remediate the site to make it safe for the public. We're creating the cake right now and putting the icing on the top".

Since 2010, $191 million has been invested into the regeneration of Wynyard Quarter, first under the guidance of Waterfront Auckland and then Eke Panuku Development Auckland.

This investment includes infrastructure for public spaces but does not include additional spending by other council agencies, such as Auckland Transport and Watercare.

Eke Panuku hopes to offer a taste of what might come with an 7th August event marking 10 years since the redeveloped Wynyard Quarter opened ahead of the 2011 Rugby World Cup.

Image shows the former ‘tank farm’, the planned site of Auckland’s newest public park. Credit: Eke Panuku.