Auckland's CBD Into the Future
Introduction |
Street and open space upgrades |
The CBD Board |
Research |
Quarter plans |
Funding |
The guiding documents |
Residents advisory group |
Action plan
Research
Auckland
City Council amassed a considerable body of research and literature in preparing
Auckland's CBD into the Future strategy and action plan. This gave us a real
understanding of the CBD and the challenges and issues we need to address to
realise our vision of the CBD as one of the world's most vibrant and dynamic
business and cultural centres.
We have summarised a number of the key research reports. They are available below in PDF
format. For this you will need Adobe Acrobat Reader.
Click here for more information.
CBD metadata analysis 1
This report
is a 'slice in time' analysis of the existing CBD research in 2002. It looks at
what makes a successful central business district and presents a stock take of
Auckland's CBD as it is today. It also looks at the opportunities for
development, and how well Auckland's CBD measures up to international criteria
for successful city centres.
CBD integrated overview
This report
provides an integrated overview of all the research completed for Auckland's CBD
Into the Future strategy and action plan. Completed in 2003, it presents key
facts about how Auckland's CBD is used, identifies the key tensions and looks at
how the CBD can be developed to resolve some of these tensions.
The economy of Auckland's CBD
The CBD
plays a number of important roles in the regional and national economy. It is a
hub for professional services, centre for culture, recreation and leisure,
destination for visitors, focus of higher education and a marine centre. These
multiple economic roles and their significance in the city, region and country
highlight the importance of the CBD's future economic well-being.
This report
describes the economy of the CBD to allow us to better understand what role it
plays, to identify the issues that need to be addressed to support it, and to
identify the possible role of the council in addressing the issues. Among those
issues are the multiple fibre optic networks, rates, the requirement for a
convention centre, the need to provide for growth of the port, the rapidly
growing education sector and the roles of the arts, entertainment, cultural and
retail sectors.
CBD education project
Education
is a major contributor to the cultural and economic life of Auckland's CBD. In
fact, a large part of the CBD acts as an education campus due to the sheer
numbers and movement of students. Education is also the fastest growing business
sector in the CBD, the biggest export earner in the CBD and now occupies a
significant portion of CBD office floor space.
This
report, based on interviews with education providers in 2003, highlights the
enormous benefits and opportunities that the education sector has brought to the
CBD. It also points out that quality is a vital ingredient in the current and
future success and sustainability of the sector.
Concerns
and issues that emerged from the research included the quality of accommodation
for students, the need for better pastoral care for foreign students,
competition for students from providers in their home countries, and
uncertainties due to political and financial environments.
Business location in relation to the CBD
This report
summarises the research commissioned by Auckland City Council to determine the
key drivers of businesses' decisions to locate in the CBD, their impressions of
the CBD as a business location and what ideas they have for future development.
The research involved in-depth interviews with key business people and decision
makers across the Auckland region.
The
environment in which businesses are deciding whether or not to locate in the CBD
includes the movement of head offices from Wellington to Auckland and from
Auckland's CBD to Sydney, a general shift of traditional CBD tenants towards the
waterfront and a dramatic increase in the share of CBD office space occupied by
the education sector. There's also an increasing demand among larger companies
for larger floor plates.
Image
remains a key driver of decisions to locate in the CBD, according to those
interviewed. Other drivers are the location of the CBD at the centre of the
region and at the hub of transport systems, proximity to clients and competitors
also in the CBD, and access to shops, services, cafes and restaurants.
Meanwhile
businesses who locate outside the CBD tend to do so because of lower rents,
cheaper parking and the wider range of premises available.
CBD business and employment analysis
This report
provides an insight into the business activity in Auckland's CBD in terms of
numbers and types of businesses, where they are located, how many they employ
and how big or small they are. In particular, it looks at the makeup of
businesses identified as key business groups - financial services, information
and communications technology, retail, transport and travel.
CBD demographic and employment data comparisons
Drawing
data from the Australian and New Zealand censuses, this 2003 report compares
Auckland's CBD with the CBDs of Christchurch, Wellington, Sydney, Perth, and
Brisbane. It finds that Auckland's CBD is demographically similar to many
Australian CBDs but is ethnically more diverse, younger and more mobile. It also
finds that the economic structure of Auckland's CBD is similar to other New
Zealand CBDs but significantly different to Sydney's and more diverse than other
Australian CBDs.
Auckland central CBD: Resident population
This 2002
report provides insight into who lives in the CBD and how the CBD's resident
population differs from the population of Auckland city and the region in
general. It highlights the significant population and residential property
growth and socio-economic changes that have transformed the CBD since 1991 from
a predominantly commercial centre to a mixed use one.
Behaviour and attitudes and perceptions of residents, workers and visitors in the central city
This 2003
report summarises the results of Auckland City Council's sixth biennial survey
of the behaviours, attitudes, and perceptions of workers, residents, and
visitors in Auckland's CBD. The survey is designed to determine trends in
people's perceptions of their personal safety, the reasons for being in the city
centre and how they got there.
Auckland City CBD perceptions research
This 2003
report outlines research undertaken to understand how the CBD is used and by
who; how it is perceived; what affects its use or enjoyment; and to recommend
what can be done in the next three to five years to improve perceptions. The
research involved 40 in-depth face to face interviews, followed by a telephone
survey of 668 Aucklanders from across the region.
The
research results were clear and consistent - social and cultural factors are
hugely important in creating liking, satisfaction, enjoyment, and use of the
CBD. Targeting social and cultural programmes can have a major impact on
improving perceptions of the CBD, which will lead in turn to greater economic
output. Social and cultural programmes can be developed quickly, and more
cheaply, than redevelopment and infrastructure projects.
Key facts
to emerge from the research were:
- 95 per cent of those in the CBD on any day are Auckland region people (although
there are also significant numbers of tourists and non-Aucklanders).
- Patterns of CBD use are diverse with some areas more specialised than others;
areas nearer the water are more heavily used and other areas used very little.
- There is no significant demographic difference in the use of different areas
except for age and overseas tourists. For example, areas like Karangahape Road
and the university have younger visitors, while others like Aotea have older
visitors. The most popular tourist spots are the Viaduct, Aotea, the Waterfront,
and Westside.
- The largest group of users of the CBD are 18 - 35 years old while there is very
light use by people over the age of 55.
- Activities and users differ between day and night with much more business during
the day and much more recreation at night. There are few tourists in the CBD at
night.
- Use is even from Monday to Thursday, with a peak on Fridays. Saturdays are as
busy as weekdays, and Sundays the quietest day.
- Tourists - domestic and international - rate the CBD as much more enjoyable than
locals.
- Most users recognise the CBD as somewhere special and would recommend it to
others.
The
research also looked at who used different quarters of the CBD, how and when. It
showed, for example, that tourists tend to use the Viaduct during the day,
locals use it at night; Upper Queen Street is a night-time place; and
Karangahape Road and Grafton have a very diverse set of activities.
Auckland City CBD research 24/7 photo documentary
This 2003 report provides a documentary record of the use of various quarters of
the CBD over time. It selects photographs which best represent the character,
use, and users of each quarter within the CBD.
Auckland City CBD research 24/7 photo documentary report 2: CBD themes
This
companion report to the photographic documentary record explores the character
of the CBD from the point of view of its users. Photographs are organised in
themes, including:
- Atmosphere: The feelings, moods, and atmosphere invoked by the CBD, by time of
day, location, situation, event, and user.
- Drivers of enjoyment: What makes the CBD a great place to be.
- Transactions: The numerous transactions between CBD users and the CBD itself,
which may vary considerably by day and time and by place.
- Public Spaces: Public spaces provide for a variety of users and uses - from
'time out' and to get from one place to another, to the opportunity to
participate in large, vibrant, outdoor activities.
- Transportation and traffic: Traffic, both vehicular and pedestrian, is a
recurring and dominant theme through most areas of the CBD.
- Education: The education sector is increasingly visible, with students in and
around many parts of the CBD.
- Residential living: Residential areas are typically quiet and have little
observable street level activity.
- Night Life: By night the CBD accommodates a diverse range of activity - after
work drinking, late night shopping, dining, arts and culture, boy racers,
gaming, pubbing and clubbing, late night cafes, red light entertainment.
- Outdoor Events / attractions: CBD streets and spaces accommodate a range of
outdoor events and attractions, from impromptu street buskers to large,
elaborate festivals.
- Weekends: Family groups, visitors, tourists and youth are all more noticeable at
the weekends and activities are primarily focused on shopping, entertainment,
leisure, and recreation.
Aspirations for the Auckland CBD experience
This 2003
report deals with a qualitative research project into 'the aspirations of
Auckland CBD user groups in regard to how they want to experience the CBD'. This
research was completed using focus groups to represent a wide range of CBD
users, including shoppers, day-time and night-time businesses and patrons,
residents, students and visitors. A meeting was also held with Tangata Whenua.
Auckland City CBD PESTE analysis
This
project attempted to identify the driving forces of changes within Auckland's
CBD over five years (1998-2003). It involved a survey of CBD users, focus groups
with senior city managers, development of hypotheses about the causes of key
changes, and secondary source research to support and validate the hypotheses.
Executive summary of the Auckland inner city living survey
The
reurbanisation of the inner city area is a phenomenon that has occurred in major
cities throughout the world over the last two decades. Auckland is no exception,
experiencing a rapid increase in population and the numbers of apartments in the
inner city area. Residential development has been a strong competitor for inner
city land sites, and is one reason for the strong growth of CBD land values in
recent times.
This 2003
report summarised the key results of a survey of 185 inner city residents to
find out why people choose to live in the CBD, what they like and dislike about
it and what's important to them. It concludes that the inner city has a rapidly
changing, ethnically diverse community with significantly different needs to
other residential areas. Inner city residents also have some very specific
requirements
