or AMP’s Botany Town Centre,” says Paul Keane from insight-led property and design company, RCG. He points out that certainly, Massey is going to have a plethora of retail activity in the near future. Ownership of retail in Massey will soon be split four ways. Stride will have the NorthWest mall and an adjoining 7,000sqm food and beverage precinct, Kiwi Property will have the Westgate Zone 7 large format centre (currently under construction), NZRPG controls the original Westgate centre and other development land, and the Midgley family controls some development land of their own, part of which has been sold off for Bunnings and Pak’nSave stores. “One assumes that each of these investors will fight for their own retail statement, and survival, and take whatever action is necessary to secure retail tenants from each other! The real trick, however, will be to encourage customers to shop at these new facilities! The reason is the intensity of the local vehicle traffic, and everybody in Auckland tries to avoid traffic congestion like the plague! It’s a fact that the northwest of Auckland is a traffic maze with new road networks emerging, so the single most difficult issue for developers to overcome is making customers happy with ease of access,” says Keane. This discussion is also appropriate on the other side of Auckland, at Pakuranga. The new owners of Pakuranga Plaza have suggested they intend to spend $500 million on the centre, converting it into a new totally mixed-use development. “If we are talking about traffic congestion and getting customers to access a new environment, then a major redevelopment of Pakuranga Plaza has the ingredients for a total traffic mishap. The Pakuranga Highway carries 55,000 vehicles a day. Add a new town centre into the mix and imagine the congestion,” points out Keane. “However, the answer apparently, is to provide public transport from Pakuranga, with a busway to take passengers from Pakuranga to Panmure and then potentially on to the CBD by train. All a good idea, the only problem is where will they park their cars to get the public transport? “The proposed redevelopment of Pakuranga Plaza is driven by changes allowed under the Auckland Unitary Plan. Intensifying residential or commercial activities may seem like a good idea due to Auckland’s undersupplied housing, but there is no clear resolution to managing the traffic intensity outputs as a result. Traditional retail shopping centres have a catch phrase that suggests ‘a covered shopping environment, with easy parking and access’. That is now not the case.” Keane brings attention to what has happened to the opportunity, and probably the only opportunity in Wellington, for a new shopping centre development at Johnsonville.  The Johnsonville Shopping Centre remains a significant opportunity for redevelopment by its owners Stride. The centre lies in a very solid catchment with sound demographics, all of which signal a very good shopping centre opportunity. “As we understand, the delay is ‘driven’ by potential traffic congestion. So will we ever see Johnsonville developed, or is the centre to be placed on the market for sale by Stride due to the difficulty of the opportunity?” queries Keane.