2026 could be Auckland’s year, writes Cheryl Adamson for The Post.
As a proud Aucklander who has called this city home for over a decade, I’m filled with a sense of hopeful optimism. With an extended list of projects either set to be finished, such as the City Rail Link and the International Convention Centre, or will begin, like the roof for the Mānuka Doctor Tennis Centre, our city has the potential to be buzzing with energy.
Yet all this excitement is being set up in a city that has become dishevelled, not too dissimilar to a teenager’s bedroom: Some sense of culture growing, untidy, and in need of a reset to be taken seriously by visitors. As we start to embrace these new additions to our city, we need to start thinking about what’s already here: A volume of empty commercial buildings.
It shouldn’t be unsurprising that we’re struggling to fill commercial spaces. With Covid changing how we work and 50,000 square meters stuck in empty B-grade stock, there is far less acceptance or enthusiasm to work in an unflattering cubicle compared to a home office. Pair this with little incentive to improve spaces that aren’t in prime locations, and all of a sudden we’ve ended up with empty spaces across the city, not just downtown. With earthquake strengthening rules changing, intensification at the top of the agenda, and RMA reform underway, now is the time to start talking about how we can use the building stock we already have.
This is not to say that there is no work being done to understand what the future of our city looks like, or that we’re all sitting idle. Initiatives such as the Auckland Innovation & Technology Alliance encourage a burgeoning tech sector, which will require dedicated spaces to exist in, while the development of commercial spaces such as 50 Albert Street signal the importance of high quality spaces for in-person connection by large corporates. It’s clear we not only have ambitions, we also have standards for what is possible for our city.
With this desire to move forward, our decaying spaces represent the opportunity to foster something new. When looking at the history of Parnell’s warehouse district, we can see how repurposing spaces can transform an area to support new industries. Future House, a former wool store, became an incubator for companies like RocketLab and LanzaTech. The Textile Centre, which used to house wool for the likes of Farmers and Federated Farmers, is now home to successes such as Icehouse and Kami.
It’s also not all just about business. Generationally important artists such as Patti Smith and New Zealander Ann Shelton have shown us that repurposing spaces and living in unusual places can be key to unlocking creativity while having a roof over their heads. With Auckland facing issues with homelessness, pushback on housing density, and young talent leaving due to the unaffordability of our city, do our commercial spaces offer the opportunity to find a shared solution?
While all of this may feel unique to Auckland, it couldn’t be further from the truth. Calgary is a perfect example of what’s possible. A city of similar size to ours with similar struggles, Calgary has been able to implement a conversion program that has seen $4 in private investment for every $1 of public funding, all while adding benefit to the character of its city.
To make any of this more than a pipe dream, it’s going to require something special from us all: The appetite to try something new. For as long as we can remember, New Zealand has been built on the idea of ingenuity and developing solutions that surprise us and the rest of the world. The conversion of commercial spaces is not a new idea, but is one that we can tailor to meet Auckland where it’s at, right here, right now.
This, of course, will require collaboration, which was at the heart of developments such as Future House. It will require council, landowners, and people with smart ideas to come together and decide what sort of developments are suitable for our old buildings and which parts of our local economy need stimulating. By bringing the right people together, we can ensure that our city’s infrastructure finally catches up with its ambition.
