If it only had a heart

By Vincent Heeringa, March 1, 2006 @ 1 am

Idealog March/April 2006, page 50. Photograph by Adam Custins

Can heartless Auckland be given a beating creative centre? Expat developer Peter Cooper thinks so. In the biggest property deal in New Zealand history, Cooper and company plan to turn Auckland’s derelict Britomart precinct into a centre of retail, commercial and residential creativity

It’s a splendid Auckland day. The sun beats the pavers till they’re shimmering with radiant heat. Clouds pass dreamily overhead. The pre-Christmas rush is full of promise of holidays at the beach or lazily cruising the streets of a city abandoned. Auckland on a great day is magnificent.

Well, sort of. It is if you’re not stuck somewhere in the heart of the city. Despite the impressive harbour, the City of Sails is still largely severed from the water’s edge by a row of dreary streets and a derelict precinct that runs from the Central Post Office at the bottom of Queen Street, almost all the way to the foothills of Parnell. In Victorian times this area was a battlement, Fort Britomart. Now the precinct is a soulless encampment of crumbling, tagged, heritage buildings and the centrepiece of a heartless central business district.

How many years has it been there? How many times do Aucklanders drive past it without noticing? How many hours have been spent speculating on its future? How many dollars have been poured downwards into a sinkhole of pointless debate about how to fix it?

A small bunch of visionary architects, developers and urban planners has quietly been addressing the problem we all know as Britomart. Peter Cooper, a millionaire Kiwi resident in California, stands relaxed, overlooking what’s now a million-dollar car park from his refurbished Deco office building. “We did this building first because it was the worst. We wanted to show people what could be done,” he says.

What could be done—and what will be done. Cooper’s Bluewater Consortium won the right from Auckland City to develop and lease the precinct for the next 150 years, involving some 25 buildings and five hectares of land. Taking the plans exhaustively developed by Auckland City, Cooper and friends are working on an idea that may transform the way Auckland’s central business district works.

Cooper could be making more money back in the United States. Actually, he is, having built the Southlake Town Centre, a ten-year, large-scale urban centre in Texas that is creating a city square from effectively nothing. It’s one of many such developments by his real estate business, Cooper & Stebbins. A former Russell McVeagh lawyer and Lion Nathan director, Cooper’s US businesses also include a private equity firm with interest in six other companies and an equity investment fund.

So he could simply come back to New Zealand for Christmas and friends, but he reckons Britomart is too special to ignore. “This is a rare opportunity, in any part of the world. To have a project of this scale, in such a prime location, in the heart of the downtown, on the water’s edge, is very, very exciting,” he says.

For one thing, the project is the largest property deal ever done in New Zealand, estimated to cost $500 million over the next decade. It’s certainly one of the most complex, involving the restoration of 17 heritage buildings and creating six new mixed-use buildings. The restoration and construction are due to be completed in 11 years. If Cooper and company get their way, they’d like to extend the development across the road and onto the two wharves, Queens and Captain Cook, currently Auckland’s most picturesque car parks.

“This is a rare opportunity, in any part of the world. To have a project of this scale, in such a prime location, in the heart of the downtown, on the water’s edge, is very, very exciting.”

Britomart is also unusual for the idea it entails. Most developments of this sort begin with an anchor tenant such as a Warehouse, a K-Mart or, if you’re lucky, an international store like Bloomingdales, and then expand to fill the spaces with whatever else can be found. Cooper has a different agenda. Returning to Godzone every other Christmas, Cooper and his wife Sue have been increasingly struck by the locals’ rise in confidence in being, well, New Zealanders. "When I saw this area I realised we had an incredible opportunity to demonstrate the attributes of our culture,” he says. “When we bring our American friends down here they are amazed at the freshness of it all. My children say Auckland is a little New York. It’s multicultural. It’s confident and open. There’s so much going on in art, fashion, design, music—there’s a cultural renaissance going on.”

To Cooper, that revival is more than just nice; it’s a business opportunity. His vision is for Britomart to become the creative heart of Auckland, stacked with creative industries, high-end accommodation, branded New Zealand retail, street art, cultural activities and, of course, a stunning mix of European and Pacific architecture. Think Vulcan Lane meets Manhattan. Or Parnell’s funky Textile Centre meets a French food market. No malls. No chain stores. No two-dollar shops. No pink and grey offices. No boiler-plate, flick ’em quick, shoe-box ghettos.

What a lovely idea. But how?

Four flights up a rat-riddled, crumbling stairway in the old Quay Building on Quay Street, visitors spill into a vast, open penthouse with exposed wooden rafters and huge arched windows overlooking the harbour. In the centre is a full-size boxing ring where two women, all gloves and padding, jostle against the ropes. Welcome to the City Boxing Club. “It’s very Chicago, don’t you think?” says Jeremy Priddy, Bluewater’s man responsible for selling lease spaces to tenants.

Chicago, New York, Soho—those are the places that Bluewater wants you to think of when talking Britomart. That’s easy to say. They took centuries to emerge as commercially creative clusters. How does Bluewater expect to manufacture one here?

“Slowly,” says Bluewater chief executive and former Bell Gully partner Matthew Cockram. “We’ve been very clear about it being an 11-year development. And that it’s an evolution.”

Which is to say it’s done in parts. The original plan for the precinct was developed by architect Mario Madayag in partnership with Auckland firm Jasmax. The two submitted the plan for the “above ground” section of Britomart when they won the competition to design the underground transport hub.

The first stage is to clean up the heritage buildings, shoo out the street kids, fix leaking roofs, restore essential services and find sexy tenants like the boxing club, the Auckland Theatre Company, the NBR New Zealand Opera, Ora art gallery and a Macs Beer bar in the refurbished Northern Steamship building. That’s no mean feat. The clean-up is costing millions. Some of the buildings were so derelict the basements were full of rainwater.

Stage one also involves getting performing art on-site. A large, semi-permanent tent already sits in the central Takutai Square for events and parties. The precinct is hosting Coexistence, an outdoor poster exhibition that began in Jerusalem and is touring the world. Cockram promises to have a continual series of cultural and artistic endeavours on show.

Stage two is to restore the heritage buildings to become high-quality apartments and trendy office spaces. Cockram points to the restoration of the Central Post Office as an example of the quality of work Cooper expects. This stunning redevelopment reeks expense—the plaster work has been done by genuine craftsmen, the spiral stone staircases perfectly rebuilt, the turrets painstakingly painted. The refashioned windows open better than when they were first made. If this is the standard for the remaining 16 heritage buildings then Cooper has some work to do.

“The clean-up is costing millions. Some of the buildings were so derelict the basements were full of rainwater.”

That’s as it should be, says Cooper. “We’re very young in New Zealand. Overseas, even young cities like New York understand the value of heritage buildings and they have management and capital structures to maintain them. We don’t, so we need to evolve them.”

Stage three is building the six new structures that include office, retail and residential uses.

Not everyone is buying the idea of Britomart as a creative hub. You’d probably think that John McCormack, owner of Starkwhite art gallery and author of an Auckland City report on nurturing Auckland’s creative industries, would be an enthusiast. He gives it one thumb up. “I really hope for Auckland that they succeed. But the reality is that creative industries are typically made up of very small businesses which struggle with CBD rental rates. We need multiple areas where creative industries can find appropriate accommodation.”

McCormack recently moved his gallery from downtown Shortland Street to K’ Road, where the space is big, the neighbours are eclectic and rentals are affordable.

Zambesi, the New Zealand fashion label, is another prime candidate. Owner Neville Findlay has been talking to Bluewater and says he likes the big idea, but again, economics comes into play. “We can’t afford to have two stores in the CBD so it’s either Vulcan Lane or Britomart.” Findlay’s commitment to Vulcan Lane is longstanding and fairly public. Last year he led opposition to a council upgrade of the inner city lane on the basis that its unique character draws customers from across the region. For Findlay, replicating the foot traffic and the environment are the key drivers. “Britomart might happen, but it needs some key stakeholders to give it credibility.”

John Hunt agrees—and he should know. Professor Hunt of the University of Auckland was the chairman of judges for the original Britomart competition. He was also on the reference committee which judged the bids from developers, including Bluewater. According to Hunt, two stumbling blocks await Cooper. First, the architecture of the new buildings—and how well they sit alongside the well-loved heritage buildings. Getting this right is hard, he says, and has implications for the feel of the place and attracting tenants and visitors. Second, how well Cooper manages the balance of tenants—not too many starving artists, not too many corporates, not too many international stores, not too many food halls. “The jury is out on how successful it will be at attracting ordinary Aucklanders, especially at the ground level. There’s still a long way to go to get an exemplary development … but the skeleton is extremely sound.”

Economics might work in Bluewater’s favour. Alex Swney, the ebullient boss of Auckland promotion agency Heart of the City, waves his hands generously towards both Vulcan Lane and Britomart exclaiming there’s room for both. “It’s an idea whose time has come!” Swney spews statistics like froth from a High Street latte machine. Inner city resident numbers continue to spiral upwards: 1,450 in 1991 to 22,000 now and an expected 30,000 by 2010. Only 13 percent of the region’s population is employed in the CBD, low by international standards. Solving Auckland’s public transport problems will only increase inner-city custom. “There’s massive room for growth!”

Swney claims that “suburban malls are the new ghettos”. Mall developer Westfield disagrees, claiming New Zealand is ‘under-malled’ at just 27 percent of retail (it’s 40% in Aussie). But Bluewater research suggests a new urge for authenticity is awakening—Cooper’s ‘creative renaissance’ maybe? Some 630 online surveys of Auckland city dwellers conducted by Kudos, a market research company, revealed strong opinions about what Britomart could become. The respondents overwhelming voted against the blandness of malls and chain stores, repeating words such as ‘unique’, ‘authentic’, ‘Kiwi’, ‘open’, ‘individual’, ‘friendly’, ‘inclusive’ and ‘surprising’. People wanted the feel of European food markets without pretension, cost and parking hassles. Ranking four distinct scenarios presented by Kudos, people voted first for a ‘French-style market’ and second for ‘urban funk’. Interestingly, ‘urban chic’ was voted well down the list. “I don’t want overpriced boutiques” was one response.

Does that vision of Kiwi culture sound all a bit hard to achieve? It already exists, says Pip Cheshire, the senior architect on the Britomart project. “I was on a surfing holiday in Fiji with Peter [Cooper] and my son was there one day wearing a lava-lava, an expensive Italian shirt and a pearl bracelet. And Peter said ‘That’s it, that’s the combination’. European, Pacific, Asian. It’s a new society.”

There’s something else in Cooper’s favour. It’s him. Said by some to be a billionaire, Cooper meets the stereotype of a high flyer. Formal and controlled, he’s a combination of Douglas Myers in resolve, Alan Gibbs in inventiveness and Gary Langsford in taste. He counts all three as friends.

At Russell McVeagh he led a property team through the rollicking 1980s, including a stint as director of the ill-fated Mace Corporation, and played a key role in the merger of Lion and Nathan. He says he hired Kevin Roberts as Lion Nathan’s chief operating officer.

Despite the success—or maybe because of one sharp deal too many—Cooper admits leaving New Zealand in 1990 with “a certain amount of bitterness”, frustrated at the negativity and suspicion shown towards achievers of his kind. He meant to take his wife and five kids for a year out, but California has been great to the Coopers, helping them amass a tidy personal fortune and a business empire that stretches from private equity to international real estate development.

“We will achieve the best return when we combine architecture, art and commerce in a way that people find legitimate.”

So there’s clearly the ability to get things done. Pip Cheshire says Cooper won the Britomart development rights from Auckland City through simply being the last man standing. “It was a war of attrition, which continues.” Last year Cooper bought out the two other parties in the Bluewater Consortium, Mulitplex, the construction company and Phillimore Properties, heritage developers. Why? “It’s so much easier to make decisions when you own the whole thing,” says Cooper.

But it’s not all about control. There seems to be something of the visionary about Cooper. His other New Zealand development, Mountain Landing in the Bay of Islands, is a lesson in patience. It has taken a decade to return the land to pre-European shape and plantings, including restoring a stream and wetlands. The property has won praise from unlikely sources including the Far North District Council and the Environmental Defence Society, a lobby group trying to stop destructive development. Cooper must be the only property developer in New Zealand who praises the Resource Management Act for its ability to enforce ‘good’ development.

Could he also be the only property developer who talks enthusiastically about Polynesian welcome mats? Standing in the boardroom of his cute, refurbished deco office, Cooper becomes animated when he starts to describe how he has commissioned Niuean artist John Pule to create the patterns on Takutai Square. “The worst thing we can do is plonk a sculpture into a building as a fob. We will measure our success by the financial return on the investment. But we will achieve the best return when we combine architecture, art and commerce in a way that people find legitimate.”

You know times have changed when a former 80s property developer seeks legitimacy from a culturally-savvy public. But who’s complaining?