Sylvia Park

Sylvia Park is a large business park and shopping centre in the Auckland, New Zealand suburb of Mount Wellington. Less commonly known, the area around the centre (which includes some residential and other commercial developments) is also called Sylvia Park (the centre takes its name from the area, not vice versa, but Sylvia Park is not officially a suburb). The area is located adjacent to two major interchanges of the Auckland Southern Motorway - the South-Eastern Highway (which passes directly through the shopping centre on a viaduct) and Mount Wellington Highway.

Land and store space in the Sylvia Park development is let out to a wide variety of major retailers, with key tenants including The Warehouse Extra, Hoyts Cinemas, Borders bookstore, Dick Smith Powerhouse as well as the Pak'n Save and Foodtown supermarkets. In addition, the centre has franchises of all major New Zealand banks and a wide variety of other retailers. The centre employs approximately 2,500 staff, and was drawing about 12,000 shoppers at a time during the weekends of the 2007 winter months.

The name Sylvia Park is from the large country house / stud farm built here in the late 19th century. [ [http://www.teara.govt.nz/Places/Auckland/AucklandPlaces/14/ENZ-Resources/Standard/4/en Sylvia Park shopping centre] (from Te Ara Encyclopedia of New Zealand. Accessed 2008-06-07.)] It was the country residence of Sir Maurice O'Rourke, one of the first Speakers of the House. Sir Maurice used the land primarily for horse breeding. The house was demolished in the 1960s and the land given over to either industrial use or became part of the Mount Richmond public domain.Fact|date=December 2007

In a 2008 rating of New Zealand shopping centres by a retail expert group, Sylvia Park received four stars, the maximum rating, based on the criteria of amount of shopping area, economic performance, amenity and appeal as well as future growth prospects. Especially praised were the wide catchment of shoppers and the motorway acessibility. [cite |author=Gibson, Anne |title=From 'yahoo' to ho hum - how the shopping malls rate |publisher=The New Zealand Herald |date=2008-07-07 ]

History

Development

The development is owned by Sylvia Park Business Centre Ltd (SPBCL), a subsidiary of Kiwi Income Property Trust. The development is situated on 24 hectares of land, a large part of which is still to be developed. KIPT acquired the land in two transactions in 1995 .

However, the land was at that stage zoned for industrial use by the Auckland City Council. The developers asked the council to modify the district plan to allow high-density commercial use, a change which the council supported, and drafted into 'Plan Change 4'. However, the plan change was opposed by the Ngati Maru Iwi authority, which represents Māori interests in the area. A December 2001 decision of the Environment Court confirmed the plan change. Demolition and construction began in 2004, with retail construction beginning in 2005.

Opening issues

Stage One of the development opened to the public on June 6 2006. The opening received nationwide television and radio coverage the day before, as the development is one of the largest in New Zealand. This resulted in a very high shopper turnout on the opening day, and despite planning by SPBCL, caused severe gridlock on the notoriously busy Auckland Southern Motorway as well as major arterial routes in the vicinity of the centre, including the South-Eastern & Mount Wellington Highways. Transit New Zealand and SPBCL took the unusual step of recommending people postpone trips to the mall.cite web|url=http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=1&ObjectID=10386165|accessdate=August 2006|title="Stay away, mall tells shoppers"] As part of the conditions of being granted planning permission SPBCL was required to manage traffic flows to the site, and had the traffic jams continued would have faced an accelerated timetable for upgrading key roads. The congestion did force SPBCL to implement a traffic monitoring programme ahead of schedule.cite web|url=http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10387012|accessdate=August 2006|title="Sylvia Park may face bill for jams"] Stage Two of the development opened in August 2006 and expanded the fashion, beauty and food retailers of the centre.

In contrast to the initial interest, weekday retail sales were soon considered to be flagging, with the centre being nicknamed 'Spooky Park' by some. The owners noted that this did not extend to weekend sales, and that the centre had in the meantime gained during the weekdays as well.

Country's biggest mall

Stage Three was opened 29 March 2007, and included a cinema (along with the biggest 35mm permanent movie screen in the world, according to the Guinness World Records), [" [http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/1/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10431363 Auckland multiplex screen a Guinness World Record] " - New Zealand Herald"] Borders bookstore, 45 new stores, as well as bars and restaurants.cite web|url=http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/3/story.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=10423473|access date=February 2007|title="Hoyts thinks big in battle to attract moviegoers"]

When Stage Three opened, it brought to New Zealand 26 stores which were either new to New Zealand or did not yet have stores in shopping centres, [" [http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/1/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10431435 45 new stores add cinema, foor and fun to mega mall] " - New Zealand"] including a Playboy Style Boutique, Timberland Store and General Issue.

Stage Four opened in June 2007, and finished the retail area of the centre, which now has 200 shops covering 6.5 ha of indoors space and is valued at NZ$450 million." [http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/3/story.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=10448353 $200m Sylvia Park office plan] " - "New Zealand Herald", Thursday 28 June 2007] Sylvia Park's reign as the largest New Zealand shopping centre was however short, with the opening of the larger Westfield Albany on 1st November 2007, which has less number of stores (150 approx.), but covers a larger area.

The reopening of the rebuilt Sylvia Park Train Station in July 2007, on a railway line directly to the east of the shopping centre, as required by the resource consent of the centre, now links Sylvia Park to destinations along the Eastern Line with at least half-hourly frequency." [http://www.nzherald.co.nz/category/story.cfm?c_id=77&objectid=10449017 Next stop, shopping ... big centre gets its own rail station] " - "New Zealand Herald", Monday 02 July 2007]

Future plans

Stage Five is planned to open in 2008 and are to add NZ$ 200 million of office space in four separate buildings. Kiwi Income noted that it had always planned to develop offices around the perimeter of the centre, but had delayed this until the retail was starting to take off. Its recently dedicated train station will, along with a bus terminal and the fact that the development is located by a major road junction, make Sylvia Park easily accessible by both private and public forms of transport from the majority of Auckland's central, eastern and southern suburbs.

Major stores

* The Warehouse Extra
* Hoyts Cinemas
* Borders
* Dick Smith Powerhouse
* Pak'n Save
* Foodtown

ee also

*Sylvia Park Train Station

References

External links

* [http://www.sylviapark.org/ Sylvia Park] (official centre website)
* [http://www.kipt.co.nz/n704.html Silvia Park, Auckland] (development website of Kiwi Income Property Trust)