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Andrew Barnes: Kiwi entrepreneur outlines plan to revitalise Auckland's CBD · The SME Stream

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  Speaker 1: Entrepreneur Andrew Barnes says Auckland's CBD needs a dramatic makeover.
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  Speaker 1: He's come up with a list of ideas to help
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  Speaker 1: revitalize Auckland's central city and publish them in and op
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  Speaker 1: in the Herold. And Andrew is with us this evening.
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  Speaker 2: Kildo Andrew Cira Jack. How are you.
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  Speaker 1: I'm very well, thank you. So let's start off with
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  Speaker 1: the problem diagnosis. What is the problem with auckland CBD.
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  Speaker 2: Well, Auckland's CBD is not really as thriving as it
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  Speaker 2: should be. There are lots of empty shops, the style
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  Speaker 2: of those shops are not necessarily as good as you
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  Speaker 2: might be. There aren't as many cafes, a lot of
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  Speaker 2: them have closed, and it really isn't that attractive a
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  Speaker 2: place to go and visit anymore.
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  Speaker 1: I reckon it's better than it was a few years ago.
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  Speaker 1: Do you agree with that?
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  Speaker 2: Oh, it's better than it was a few years ago.
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  Speaker 2: But yeah, it certainly is not.
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  Speaker 1: It's not a huge dramatic difference. Yeah, yeah, no, I
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  Speaker 1: get I get that. So if it's feeling a bit tired,
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  Speaker 1: what do you think is at the core of improving
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  Speaker 1: the CBD.
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  Speaker 2: Well, it's this little bit chicken and egg. I think
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  Speaker 2: one of the problems is that we're not getting the
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  Speaker 2: number of people coming into the city anymore. Now. That's
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  Speaker 2: primarily because you've got things like working from home. You've
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  Speaker 2: got people who have repositioned where their businesses are. So
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  Speaker 2: if you have a look in the CBD, there are
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  Speaker 2: a lot of empty office blocks. So because we haven't
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  Speaker 2: got the people coming in, that means that they're not shopping,
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  Speaker 2: they're not attending the cafes, and so the problem is
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  Speaker 2: lack of population now. And this of course is where
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  Speaker 2: its advocates think that the CRL will probably help us well.
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  Speaker 1: I mean, theoretically that should bring teams of thousands of
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  Speaker 1: people into the CBD that have of course assumes that
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  Speaker 1: they work in the CBD. And the point you've maid
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  Speaker 1: the healer is that actually having people living in the
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  Speaker 1: CBD would mean that the demand for detail and hospitality
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  Speaker 1: was there on the ground already.
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  Speaker 2: That's right. So what we've done is we've built because
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  Speaker 2: we hand effectively a lot of the decisions about how
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  Speaker 2: our city operates. In the day to the late lamented
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  Speaker 2: Auckland transport that was all about moving people around. It
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  Speaker 2: wasn't about why they came in. So if we're building
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  Speaker 2: something to bring people into the CBD, we have to
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  Speaker 2: ask the question is why are they making the trip.
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  Speaker 2: If they're not coming in to work, they've got to
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  Speaker 2: come in for leisure. So your choices either, you know,
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  Speaker 2: bring more bring more people into the CBD by building
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  Speaker 2: the things that they want to come and see, or alternatively,
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  Speaker 2: have the people lived there already.
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  Speaker 1: And so one of the suggestions you've made is that
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  Speaker 1: we have a big showcase attraction. You look at the
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  Speaker 1: likes of Mona and Tasmania for example, like an art
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  Speaker 1: gallery of true Internet all esteem and a claim that
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  Speaker 1: people travel from around the world to come and see
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  Speaker 1: something like that in Central Auckland. But what might be
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  Speaker 1: some other options for getting people to live in the CBD.
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  Speaker 1: Are the policy changes we could make that might intensify
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  Speaker 1: some of the apartment blocks and things.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, well I think there is. I think you could
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  Speaker 2: look at the underutilized office box. I actually have an
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  Speaker 2: apartment in the center of CBD on top of an
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  Speaker 2: office block where I think there are two floors of
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  Speaker 2: that office block that have people in the offices. If
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  Speaker 2: you could actually then encourage people to develop those buildings.
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  Speaker 2: You've seen it with the cab building for example in
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  Speaker 2: to Earth Square. If you can actually convert those two apartments,
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  Speaker 2: you could actually do that of two types, one more
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  Speaker 2: luxury ones if you want, but actually more affordable housing.
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  Speaker 2: So what we're doing is creating intensive housing in the
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  Speaker 2: burbs to and then hoping to move Pece to the center.
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  Speaker 2: Why don't we just build them in the center. Yeah? Right?
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  Speaker 1: And again one of your suggestions, and this might be
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  Speaker 1: a bit controversial, is that councils have a user or
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  Speaker 1: lose it law, So basically they can put a bit
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  Speaker 1: of pressure on developers not just to land bank and
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  Speaker 1: sit on empty your underused properties, but do we actually
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  Speaker 1: get moving?
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  Speaker 2: Well, that's right. I think the Herald a few weeks
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  Speaker 2: ago that someone went around and counting them. I think
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  Speaker 2: there are fourteen in the center. But you think about
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  Speaker 2: how many development sites that have been left for years
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  Speaker 2: because we've not been able to find a way to
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  Speaker 2: utilize these things. Because actually the natural solution is to
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  Speaker 2: build an office block. But if you don't need an
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  Speaker 2: office block, think about something else.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah right. How do you think developers would react to that?
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  Speaker 2: I sort of don't care. I mean, at the end
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  Speaker 2: of the day, land banking doesn't help the city, but
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  Speaker 2: it means if they can't think of a suitable way
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  Speaker 2: you utilize the property, then maybe they might sell it
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  Speaker 2: to somebody who wants to get on and do it.
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  Speaker 2: What I was suggesting in the article was a simple
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  Speaker 2: thing that, by the way, that if you do have
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  Speaker 2: a development, so you've got to turn it into a
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  Speaker 2: proper park for the intervening period rather than another car
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  Speaker 2: park or just an area of Tarmact wasteland.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean I like that idea in theory. You know,
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  Speaker 1: if it would mean more public space, it would make
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  Speaker 1: it presumably more attractive for the people who do live
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  Speaker 1: in the CBD. And what would what would be the
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  Speaker 1: requirements of those public parks? Do you think in green space?
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm thinking green space and let's face it, this
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  Speaker 2: time with real grass rather than I think we've built
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  Speaker 2: a few of these parks. Certainly the one at the
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  Speaker 2: bottom end of Queen Street across from us it's got
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  Speaker 2: you know, plastic grass. It's very enticing. Yeah.
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  Speaker 1: When do you make of the decisions that counsel and
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  Speaker 1: organ transportant policy makers have made when it comes to
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  Speaker 1: cars and the CBD.
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  Speaker 2: Look, at the end of the day, the difficulty is
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  Speaker 2: if you don't if you don't have solutions. And I
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  Speaker 2: think the recent situation with the concerts at Mount Smart
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  Speaker 2: where you know there is no public transport really available
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  Speaker 2: to move people around. So I can understand this argument.
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  Speaker 2: Let us build public transport and then we make it
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  Speaker 2: easier for people to move around. But the problem is
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  Speaker 2: on public transport doesn't really work and it doesn't really
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  Speaker 2: go to the places that we want. Classic one was
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  Speaker 2: that concert you could get into the CBD, but nobody
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  Speaker 2: thought to connect the buses from the stadium with buses
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  Speaker 2: going to the North Shore. So until you actually have
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  Speaker 2: a comprehensive solution at the end of the day, Auckland
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  Speaker 2: is a city that needs cars.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, yeah. And would you say that the balance
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  Speaker 1: has shifted in favor of pedestrians and cyclists too much
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  Speaker 1: in the CBD.
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  Speaker 2: I think it's shifted, yeah, too much. One of the difficulties,
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  Speaker 2: and you can see it in the CRL paper. You
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  Speaker 2: could see it also in the one that they did
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  Speaker 2: on cycle ways that the council comes up or Open
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  Speaker 2: Transport came up with these fantastic things. I mean this
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  Speaker 2: one has got you know the number of benefits that
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  Speaker 2: will accrue to Auckland as my particular favorite is one
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  Speaker 2: point six billion in reliability benefits. So you're saying that, actually,
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  Speaker 2: if you just make the buses run and time on
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  Speaker 2: the trains roping time, we'd have actually picked up one
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  Speaker 2: point six billion without building a CRL. That's the problem.
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  Speaker 2: A lot of this is fabricated numbers. What we actually
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  Speaker 2: need is real world's policies to understand how you bring
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  Speaker 2: people into a city, how you make them over around,
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  Speaker 2: not just simply playing to ideology.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, very interesting. Hey, thanks to Andrew. We always appreciate
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  Speaker 1: the way you consider these problems and appreciate your thoughts.
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  Speaker 1: This evening. That is Andrew Barnes. For more from Hither
• 8:16
  Speaker 1: Duplessy Alan Drive, listen live to news talks it'd be
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  Speaker 1: from four pm weekdays, or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio.