Waikato Business News April/May 2021

6 WAIKATO BUSINESS NEWS April/May 2021
‘I want to be part of a great city’
From page 4
pull his punches. “I reckon
we’re building crap
everywhere,” he says.
There are three modes of
development in a city: high,
medium and low density. “And
at the moment, I think we’ve
got those priorities slightly
confused. You know, just build
whatever you can do anywhere,
to fit anything on it and
it’ll be fine.”
Taylor, who says he takes
on board Stark’s comments
about lack of interactions, also
agrees there is an “awful mish
mash of development” allowed
through the city under the current
District Plan, which is
being reworked.
“I think that’s a huge shame
and we’re turning that ship
around right now as we redo
the District Plan.”
Taylor says the city is heading
towards getting higher density
quality housing in the central
city and surrounding areas
and probably close to high frequency
public transport routes.
“The other areas of the
city will be protected and
you can buy a family house
knowing you won’t get a
Experience care as it
should be, experience
the Braemar way.
nasty surprise next door.”
Stark says Chartwell, the
central city and The Base
should be ring fenced as the
areas to intensify because they
have the amenities that people
need. And Hamilton’s boundaries
shouldn’t keep growing,
given the city’s constraint with
its bridges.
“I want to be a part of a
great city, not a crap city.”
This puts him in an interesting
position when it comes
to the vexed question of
development contribution
remissions in the CBD.
“I think we need to be careful
of not starving the central
city.
“What happens is, if you
take the DCs off, and then we
want the cobbles in Garden
Place fixed, we’ve got to dip
back into the ratepayer to get
that. Whereas I think the developers
should be contributing
something to beautification.”
He does, however, see
merit in incentivising developers
to build up in the central
city, given how comparatively
cheap it is to intensify on land
further out. Stark has seen
development costs rise dramatically
in the last three to four
years. “Land’s got more expensive,
building costs have got
20, 30 percent more expensive.
It’s shifting pretty quickly.”
He is concerned at the cost
of compliance, some of it
driven by environmental concerns,
after what he describes
as 15 years of drift since he
started as a developer.
“I reckon we need to draw a
line in the sand and say, are we
prioritising humans enough?
Because what really grinds my
wheels is, why on earth have
we got a couple of hundred
people living in Ulster Street in
some very substandard accommodation,
and children living
in that sort of environment
with guards standing outside,
you know? It’s not acceptable.
“Ironically, we’re trying
to make people safer from a
health and safety perspective.
But are those people feeling
safe down Ulster Street?”
Nevertheless, Stark is
forging ahead with his
developments in the
city. Tristram Precinct, opposite
Tūāpapa is almost complete,
and naming rights clients
WSP will shift in with the
regional council to follow.
Stark Property is also partnering
with the New Zealand
Blood Service to design and
build a new facility for the
Waikato Donor Centre on
the corner of Anglesea and
London Streets.
We want to create
a city of Hamilton
Kirikiriroa around
being distinctively
different to any other
city in the country,
and the world.
The three-level building,
plus basement carpark, has
been designed to accommodate
a national office, meeting room
and staffroom, as well as logistics
facilities on the first two
floors. Earthworks will start in
September.
Stark is confident of filling
both Tūāpapa and Tristram
Precinct office developments,
with plenty of people looking
for space, whether they are
coming from inside or outside
the city.
The same applies for other
future office developments,
including one on the corner of
Victoria and Hood Streets.
“Because I think, through
Covid, everybody talked about
working from home, Zoom,
Microsoft Teams, all these
things. But we’ve worked out
pretty quickly, we don’t like
working on our own too long.”
He says 95 percent of the
residents of Panama Square,
the Garden Place coworking
space developed by Stark
Property, had returned to the
building within three days of
being able to following lockdown.
If anything, he expects
offices to become bigger
because of wellness requirements.
“We won’t be cramming
as many people in so they
will need bigger floorplates.”
He says Stark Property is
seeing all the companies within
its portfolio grow, and Stark
Property itself is also growing,
currently with 13 staff.
They have shifted to an
office on the ground floor of
Panama Square which opens
directly onto Garden Place.
“That’s part of the evolution
of how we see our cities.
You know, there will be more
office on the ground floor. Too
often, we’ve shied away from
it - ‘it needs to be upstairs’ - but
it’s more active in some offices
than in some retail spaces.
“I think it’s good that there’s
so many interactions you have
from a business perspective.
You see people walk past, they
see you and they come in.”
Meanwhile, there’s that
simple wish. “We want to
create a city of Hamilton
Kirikiriroa around being distinctively
different to any other
city in the country, and the
world.”
• Disclosure: The author
and Geoff Taylor are
co-directors of a bookwriting
service.
Braemar Hospital is one of the largest
private surgical hospitals in New Zealand,
and it’s here in Hamilton.
Artist’s impression of Tūāpapa.
With more than 100 world class specialists,
10 state-of-the-art operating rooms, 84 beds
including 32 private rooms, at Braemar
you’ll receive the highest level of care.
Choose the very best.
Choose Braemar.
braemarhospital.co.nz
BEWARE OF FOREIGN IMITATIONS.
There’s no shortage of great ideas in New Zealand.
But for an innovative bunch, we’re not the best at
realising the full potential of our innovations, particularly
when exporting them.
At James & Wells, we can identify your competitive
edge, offer business strategies for specific markets and
help you own and leverage your intellectual property to
ensure no one steals the fruit of your labour.
www.jaws.co.nz | +64 7 957 5660