Developer Matt Stark has a simple wish for his city. He wants Hamilton Kirikiriroa to be distinctively different from anywhere else in the world.
Stark looks ahead 10 or 15 years to a city with a Tainui Māori undertone, in which the buildings articulate its history and stories through their design.
He wants Hamilton to become an iconic city, just as Christchurch has been – or for that matter the great European cities like Prague or Barcelona, where he says you know instantly what city you are in.
So it’s a simple wish, and a big one.
“My dream is we build a city that, whatever culture you come from, you come to Hamilton City and you go, ‘Wow, what a cool city.’ It’s been built and created in a way that appreciates its past, knows who it is today, and knows where it’s going.”
He thinks Hamiltonians are starting to understand their past, but wonders if they understand what the city is today – “cow town or metropolitan?” – and where it is going.
He sees Stark Property’s newest build, Tūāpapa, as playing its part. Tūāpapa, which can be translated as terrace or foundation, will feature three buildings along Ward Street from the Tristram Street corner. The mixed-use development will include office space, retail and hospitality and accommodation. Construction will start on the first stage – a six-storey office building named Mahi – late this year.
As much as possible, it will be done with local providers.
“We [Hamilton] so often run to Auckland and get consultants out of there to do the stuff that we have got the expertise for in town. I’m all for getting ideas and harvesting stuff from further abroad and bringing it back because that’s what I’ve done for many years, but actually, the money spent outside the city when we’ve got the talent here, it’s crazy.
“If we want to look like Auckland, go get an Auckland consultant because they’ll make it look like Auckland.”
Creating a city that is proudly distinctive will come partly from drawing on the past for design inspiration, but also from its natural layout, which crucially includes the Waikato River.
Integrating the river should be a high priority, Stark says. “Stop building buildings on it and blocking it from the public.”
There are simple steps that he thinks haven’t yet been taken to open up the river and enhance people’s feeling of safety. “Cut the shrubs, have a vegetation management plan to look after your best asset,” he says.
“We’ve got the largest river in the country, and we’re still not there, we’re giving lip service to it. We’re a long way from it.”
When it comes to the proposed pedestrian bridge, Stark says the city should also be talking about handrails and safety barriers on the existing bridges’ footpaths – a $300,000 job, not a multimillion one, he says. He’s not opposed to builds like the footbridge and theatre, but says: “Where’s the real, meaningful, low-hanging fruit? There’s so much low-hanging fruit at the moment.”
Deputy Mayor Taylor, who has the key role as chair of the Central City and River Plan Advisory Group, says council staff are creating river view shafts in places and he is pressing for more.
“I live and breathe opening up the river to this city,” he says in response to Stark’s comments, and points out council has just got approval for a “huge raft of river projects” in the Long Term Plan.
That includes $13 million towards planning and construction of a pedestrian bridge, $6 million around the new Waikato Regional Theatre to create a plaza, $3.5 million transforming the Victoria St frontage of Waikato Museum, $1.4 million demolishing the municipal pools and doing up the Ferrybank area, and $1.1 million on Wellington St beach. He says they have also spent more than $1m on a new jetty beneath the museum, which is now open, and are backing a group that wants to create a multi-million dollar community and sports hub at Roose Commerce and Ferrybank.
Artist’s impression of Tūāpapa.
With Stark’s commitment to the city, it may seem surprising that he did not submit on Hamilton’s long-term plan.
That’s because while he respects the councillors, he says he has had only a handful of interactions with them and wonders how in touch they are with his sector of the community.
“They are in control of the fastest growing city that’s geographically well placed and a city that could be developed well and can be developed in a unique way with a young population. They’ve got all the ingredients, and are we cooking it well?”
In answer to his own question, Stark doesn’t 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 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.
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 book-writing service.
