Ben McNulty: Wellington Councillor on the future of the Johnsonville Shopping Centre

Wellington Council is hoping to force the redevelopment of the the infamous Johnsonville Shopping Centre after years of inaction.

It's been two decades since the mall was refurbished - and several high-profile retailers have abandoned the premises.

Wellington Councillor Ben McNulty says there's plenty of options to force change along.

"My view is - if they're not going to use it, they might as well lose it, and someone else who can actually do the work and has the expertise needs to come in."

LISTEN ABOVE

 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Even in coming up for the next hour. If you
worked at Macid's between twenty and nine and twenty twenty,
they might owe you some money to Native Traney will
talk us through that Milford Asset Management on the US
reporting season so far, it's actually very interesting. And the
union representing the workers at the Penrose plant that's shutting down,
it's going to talk us through what they want the
government to do to try to save those jobs. It's
eight past six now. Wellington councilors want to investigate what

(00:23):
tools the council has to force the redevelopment of Johnsonville
more like shopping center the shopping centers and I saw
after decades of an action and all the big retailers
like the warehouse and paper Plus and so on have
pulled out. It's owned by an investment management firm, Stride Property.
Stride Property says it's still working on redevelopment options. Wellington
Councilor Ben McNulty put forward the emotion of notice and

(00:45):
it's with us now, Hey.

Speaker 2 (00:45):
Ben, getting together, Thanks having me, Yeah.

Speaker 1 (00:48):
You're welcome. Listen. What's happened? Why has it been largely abandoned?

Speaker 2 (00:52):
Yeah, Look, there's a really long history here, which involves
a terrible council to set some decision when Kira Prendagast
was me to actually protect the Golden Mile against competition
in them all and it's ability. And then in twenty
twenty two the shoe was on the other foot when
we were working as counsel and partnership with Stride to
build a housing project mixed use, and government would have

(01:14):
put seventeen mil of money in there for water. They
walked away at the last minute. They're half owned by
an Australian superannuation fund and that superannuation fund got the
spooks and you know, they probably couldn't point to Johnsonville
on a map if you tried them. And the development
fell over and we're in stagnation and it's been decades
of you know, the cycle going around, so it's time
to try something new.

Speaker 1 (01:35):
So the fact that you guys want to use the
Public Works Act, I mean that's pretty serious. Does that
tell you that that you expect that nothing is going
to happen?

Speaker 2 (01:42):
Oh? Absolutely this.

Speaker 1 (01:45):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:45):
I've been in our role for about eighteen months now
and I've been sort of patient. How our local MP,
greg O Connor's been working with stride up in Auckland
trying to see something happen, and it's become increasingly clear
that if you just even look at their latest report,
they're not in a position to do all scale development
and they're a commercial property developed by and large and
commercial not working on the site. If it was, it

(02:06):
would be thriving. So you need someone who's actually experienced
at mixed use development like precinct of what they've done
up in commercial bailor something to come in. So my
view is if they're not going to use it, they
might as well lose it, and someone else who can
actually do for work and has the expertise needs to
come in.

Speaker 1 (02:21):
Right And so what are you guys thinking about some
sort of a bustin to change or something.

Speaker 2 (02:25):
Well, that's the sort of hook right in the long
term plan for a greater Wellington. They want to build
a bus and to change next to the railway station.
To do that, they have to acquire some of them
all land to do that. So there's a really strong
case of the Public Works Act to be used there
for the rest of them all that might not be
as easy, but there's also the Urban Development Act and
we just want to look at what the options are,
so we've got some kind of idea instead of just

(02:46):
hoping and praying that they might have a change of heart,
you know, one day.

Speaker 1 (02:50):
Is there anybody actually still in the moon.

Speaker 2 (02:53):
I think the vacancy rate's almost fifty percent. All of
the large retailer's gone, the warehouse, talent, Stein, zeb you know,
paper plus. It is now just a mishmash of small
independent owners who are doing their best. But recently our
dry cleaner got run out. The rent went up as
RUFE was leaking. I'd be surprised if there's going to
be many people left if we don't do anything in

(03:13):
their future.

Speaker 1 (03:15):
Yeah, I look forward to seeing how you go with this. Hey,
thank you very much, Ben, really appreciate it's been McNaughty
Wellington Counselor. For more from Hither Duplessy Allen Drive, listen
live to news talks the'd be from four pm weekdays,
or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio.