New campus for Auckland University heralds change for Newmarket

The former Lion Breweries site on Khyber Pass Road in Newmarket is in the process of becoming a new mixed-use campus for Auckland University.

The university said it is incorporating purpose-built teaching and research facilities, student accommodation, business development and other facilities, to support a further thirty to fifty years of growth, ensuring its space needs for the future.

The 5.2 hectare space will not only offer central integration with the City and Grafton campuses but will have major economic and social benefits to the area of Newmarket.

Newmarket will need to cater to a large number of students and research staff, which will undoubtedly result in an increase of business in the area.

It is essential to maximise the income opportunities for Newmarket in order to continue development and support a growing, vital part of the Auckland community.

Newmarket Business Association chief executive Ashley Church said last week that the number of people arriving in the area will bring new opportunities and challenges.

“The younger people will bring an entire new complexion to businesses in the area, meaning places such a bars will stay open after midnight because they will need to cater to that market,” said Church.

The local community have also expressed encouraging views about the development on Khyber Pass Road.

“I think it’s great, it’s going to bring a lot of money to this area and that’s exactly what this place needs,” says Angela Von, shop assistant at Colestown Chocolates.

Another local revealed how it will be a good thing, which will bring new ideas and more young people, investing in Newmarket and investing in our future.

Church said that there is ten year strategic planning in Newmarket and this development will change the nature of the plan quite substantially.

“We will have to take into account what this impact will have on it. For example the sorts of amenities that we might provide, the traffic network in Newmarket, the ways in which we would support the university as a member of our business community.”

The expansion will also impact Newmarket in regards to student accommodation planning to be built for the University.

Church stated that over the next two or three years the area will start to see consents for some large residential developments as people recognise that is an opportunity.

This will potentially determine a change to the demographic in Newmarket that it has not traditionally catered for. The area is renowned for being high-end fashion and significantly older fashion but this is likely to change with the inflow of young students.

Church also revealed how it will be a good thing for Newmarket overall and suggested “Newmarket may look to develop over time, symbiotic relationships between the university and the community.”

“I understand at this stage the site will occupy engineering and teachers training but I would imagine that will grow. So we will be looking and saying to what degree can we offer internships and opportunities for cooperating with the university to essentially help both parties.”

The social and economic opportunities this development will bring express confidence in where the area is headed.

Church agreed with the comment that this development is investing in Newmarket and indeed our future. He stated that “the impact on infrastructure will have a considerable impact on capital investment by council and by private operators in a relatively short space of time.”

He believes it is a huge investment both financially and in terms of commitment to the area over the next fifty years.

The new addition of Auckland University is going to substantially affect the future of Newmarket and the community within it.

Tweet Tweet Tweet

For our journalism assignment we had to post tweets about our progress on our news story.  #poj13 is the hashtag I used each time which was created specifically for our journalism paper. I enjoyed using my twitter account to promote my blog and found it interesting to read other students tweets as well.

Social media discussion

The requirements for the digital diary suggest we have some references to social media discussions on our news story topic. I posted the status below on Facebook to see what my friends thought about this new development and how it will impact the local area.

Interview with Ashley Church

Last Thursday I was able to meet with Ashley Church, the CEO of Newmarket Business association in regards to his opinion about the extension of the university and how Newmarket will have to adapt. He had a lot to say and his strong views helped me to gain a deeper understanding of what Newmarket wants to achieve over the next decade.

I asked him a set of questions to make sure I collected all the information I need for my news story. He had great, detailed answers, which included:

In what ways do you think this new development of Auckland University is going to impact Newmarket?

Its going to impact Newmarket in a number of ways in terms of its immediate impact it will bring a much larger number of people with the relocation of the Epsom teachers training college and the Tamaki campus to Newmarket. This will also have an impact on traffic flows.

The number of people is also going to bring some new opportunities and some new challenges, they will be younger people so that means that we will have different types of businesses that are likely to open in Newmarket. I’ll give you an example of that at the moment we have restaurants and cafes and a few bars but we don’t really have anything that closes after midnight. This will bring a whole new complexion to our businesses, so there will be bars that open to 2-3am in the morning etc. because they will need to cater to that market.

It will also change quite substantially over time the whole retail complexion and business complexion of Newmarket because you’re talking about a pretty substantial group of people using the services here.

It will also change the business complexion of the other side of the road on Khyber Pass. At the moment there are commercial services, which will become I think more retail and education-based services that are complementary to the university.

So the answer to your question is substantially.

How do you think Newmarket may have to adapt to cater for a large influx of students?

We do 10 year strategic planning in Newmarket, so every year we add a year to the end of that and we take a year off the front. So It’s always a 10 year plan and in terms of that it will change the nature of that plan quite substantially, so whereas that plan over the last 2 or 3 years has been very much about a particular vision that we had for Newmarket, while that vision will remain we will have to take into account what this impact is going to have on it. For example the sorts of amenities that we might provide, the traffic network in Newmarket, the ways in which we would support the university as a member of our business community. There’s a whole range of things that we will have to do in terms of making sure that we continue to service that and make sure that it fits in and integrates with the Newmarket community rather than does it own thing.

Residential accommodation is another thing, so student accommodation etc. which is another impact. There will be I would imagine not straight away but over the next 2 or 3 years you’ll start to see some consents for some quite big residential developments as people recognise that that’s an opportunity and you’ve only got to look around Auckland University and AUT to see how that happens.

I’ve spoken to a few shop assistants about their opinions and they all had very positive views. What do you think this development will bring to the local community and businesses of Newmarket?

MONEY- and lots of it. Students are notoriously poor but they’ll be a lot of them so there will be a lot of money going into the Newmarket businesses.

We have a reputation for being high end fashion but also have had up until recently a reputation for being about older fashion so that will change, it will have to change. So you’ll find that the fashion demographic will skew downward quite considerably and there will be a lot more stores for younger women in particular and that we will need to cater for a demographic that we haven’t traditionally catered for.

So the challenge for us will be, do we still try and maintain the whole quality high end fashion thing within that demographic? Or do we discard that and do we say no it’s a different group of people that we are appealing to. That question hasn’t been answered yet and is going to have to be worked through.

So lots of economic opportunities, good thing for Newmarket overall and the other thing we might look to develop over time is symbiotic relationships between the university and our community. So to the extent and that will depend to a large degree on what disciplines are actually being offered at the university. I understand at this stage it’s going to be engineering and teachers training but I would imagine that will grow. So we will be looking and saying well to what degree can we offer internships and opportunities for cooperating with the university to help both parties essentially with those things.

I videoed the last 2 remaining questions and this will be apart of my final new story which explains what Ashley’s message will be to all these new people coming into Newmarket and how it is investing in our future. I will use his answers in my story to balance the opinions on this development.

It will bring more money to Newmarket

Another shop assistant made a good point that this new development will bring in more money for the area. This is a very positive opinion and many businesses will feel the same. I also work in Newmarket and know that business can be slow sometimes but i think having this chance to bring in more people like students, it will surely and beneficially impact Newmarket both socially and financially.

Another opinion

This is another shop assistant who seemed very enthusiastic about the development and referred to it as “investing in Newmarket and investing in our future”. I thought this was a great way to describe how most people feel about the large change to the area.

Opinion about Auckland University’s new development

I walked the streets of newmarket and was able to hear a few opinions about what the local community thinks of this development. People seemed excited and happy because of the chance for new business and what it will bring for the future.

Is there a balance of facts and views in your story?

My story is focused on the effects the new development of Auckland University is going to have on the surrounding area of Newmarket. It will be mainly opinion based because it involves the local community and their thoughts about what this will bring to the area. However, there will be factual information included in my final story about Auckland University’s plans for this development for the future and mention of the site’s significant history.

Also, on Thursday I have managed to set up an important interview with Ashley Church, the CEO of the Newmarket Business Association to get his fresh perspective on the matter. This will hopefully provide me with both facts and opinions for my story and contribute further information on how Newmarket is going to adapt to such a large change.

From walking the streets near Khyber Pass Road I was able to talk to a few shop assistants and ask them about their views on this topic. It helped me to understand how the local community will feel once this new part of the university is completed.

I think my story will potentially have more opinions than facts but this is because it is a very new development and people are not fully aware of what is going to happen in the near future.

 

What is your story-telling frame?

There is a page on journalism.org that provides information about story-telling frames. It suggests there are thirteen different frames, which help journalists figure out the focus of their stories. I used this website to develop a deeper understanding of these frames in order to identify the angle of my story. The link to this website is http://www.journalism.org/1998/07/13/frame/

From what I have gathered I think my story would essentially apply to a ‘conjecture story’. On the website this is described as “a focus around conjecture or speculation of what is to come (process)”. My story centres on how the new development of Auckland University will impact the local community and businesses of Newmarket. It applies to this frame because this development will not be completed for a few more years and can only be judged by assumptions.

However, the ’outlook’ story-telling frame can also relate to my story because of how the current news of this development fits into history. The history is described in my previous blog and I feel that people may have varied opinions about the Lion brewery being demolished in order for this large construction to go ahead.

By using this website, it has helped me to think about the angle of my story in more detail and develop more ideas for my final written assignment. 

From then to now

I have been looking into the history of the University’s site on Khyber Pass Road in more detail and discovered it was very interesting. It was first a huge vegetable garden owned by Thomas Roach and then in 1857-1858 he transformed it into the Captain Cook Inn. In 1859, the inn was sold to Thomas Hancock who began brewing beers at the site. In 1871, the Captain Cook Brewery was established and completed in 1884. A while after his death, the brewery along with the original lion brewery on the opposite side of Khyber Pass Rd, joined a merger of the country’s 10 largest breweries to form New Zealand Breweries Limited. In 1977 the company’s name was changed to Lion Breweries and then Lion Corporation in 1986. In 1988, it changed once more to Lion Nathan when the company merged with L D Nathan and Co Ltd.  And now it belongs to Auckland University, becoming a mixed-use campus, with purpose-built teaching and research facilities, student accommodation, business development and other facilities.

The history of this certain space on Khyber Pass may effect the views on the new development of Auckland University in a negative light as it has all been demolished. I have been in contact with some people from Newmarket Business Association and hope to interview the CEO in the next week for his perspective about this substantial change to the area. 

This last image was found on Auckland University’s page which is dedicated to the new development: http://www.auckland.ac.nz/uoa/home/about/the-university/newmarket-campus-development/our-newest-campus-newmarket

They have labelled it “initial development plans” and from the picture it reveals the immense scale of the project.