Onehunga

In March 2018, a High-Level Project Plan for Onehunga was approved by Auckland Council, giving us the green light to progress our work in regenerating the area. The plan pinpoints the key actions that need to be taken, including making better use of properties the council owns.

With significant landholdings already owned in the area, the sites have the potential to deliver around 650 new residential units and 16000sqm of new retail and commercial space, as well as numerous upgraded and enhanced public spaces.

The vision and goals are:

• Enhance and restore the natural environment
• A sustainable, enabled, connected community.
• A step change in housing.
• Stimulate local growth, investment, and innovation.
• Strategic moves
• Retain – Build on the existing community strengths – people and central place
• Respond – Encourage smart growth with quality, connected communities
• Revitalise – Celebrate the industrial character and foster local productivity
• Restore – Create a healthy, activated foreshore environment
• Reconnect – Integrate Onehunga with the Manukau Harbour.

Read the High-Level Project plan at the links below.

Since the approval of the High-Level Project Plan, we have been working to develop the Onehunga Masterplan.

The Masterplan looks to make the most of the neighbourhood’s cultural diversity and history, natural features, excellent location, and transport connections.

The Masterplan includes the projects planned across three key precinct areas:

• Waiapu and Dress Smart
• Te Pūmanawa o Onehunga
• Onehunga Wharf Precinct

The projects within these precincts contribute to create a thriving town centre and further enhance Onehunga as a location of choice for Aucklanders by delivering:

• New homes and commercial premises
• New public spaces and amenities
• Improving transport and community connections

We will share the Onehunga Masterplan in 2025.

Waiapu is a key precinct in the centre of Onehunga’s town centre. The Precinct is the area situated between Onehunga Mall / Selwyn Street and Arthur Street / Church Street).

Back in 2020, we asked the local community for their ideas and views on how to transform council land in the Waiapu Precinct. This feedback helped shape the concept design that we then consulted on in early 2024. The Maungakiekie-Tamaki Local Board then subsequently approved the design, enabling Eke Panuku to work towards construction beginning later this year.

The transformation for this area will see new green spaces, a public plaza, a family play space, and safer walking connections. The precinct will see residential housing developments blocks for providing new homes, along with a location for a new supermarket, with changes to parking and the road layout in the area as a result. 

Find out more on the Waiapu Precinct project page.

Paynes Lane (Dress Smart Precinct)

Dress Smart, a destination discount outlet shopping mall, is a key part of Onehunga’s town centre – attracting shoppers from around Auckland. We are working to make it easier for people to walk from Dress Smart and connect with other parts of the town centre.

We have been working closely with the Dress Smart owners, Lendlease Funds Management Limited, to integrate their plans with our own development proposals for the Paynes Lane vicinity and rest of the town centre.  In 2022, we sold two council-owned car parks (3 Paynes Lane and 45 Waller Street) to Lendlease to enable them to expand and enhance Dress Smart. Key conditions of the sale require Lendlease to improve car parking (including vehicle circulation), their street frontage and the connection with Onehunga Mall.

Dress Smart plans to extend their existing shopping mall to include:

• A wider selection of local and international retailers over three floors
• A substantial new food and beverage area
• A new, more welcoming visitor entrance
• Improved and increased car parking facilities

In addition, we are planning several improvements to the public space in this vicinity, including:

• A street upgrade to Paynes Lane to make this area more attractive and pedestrian-friendly and create spaces for people to meet and socialise.
• Improved footpaths on Paynes Lane, Brays Rise and Waller Street, making these more visible and safer, to improve customer flow, accessibility, and connection to other parts of the town centre.
• New street furniture and lighting to improve the safety and amenity of the street.
• Realignment of the pedestrian crossing on Onehunga Mall, so it is more conveniently located adjacent to Paynes Lane.

Find out more on the Paynes Lane (Dress Smart Precinct) project page.

Te Pūmanawa o Onehunga Precinct

Te Pūmanawa o Onehunga precinct covers the area from Church Street to Princes Street, and the blocks below Princes Street and across to the train station. The plan for the area is around creating an interconnected and multifunctioning community hub. The precinct aims to build on existing community spaces and create new pedestrian links that recognize Onehunga’s history and heritage and strengthen the unique landscape character.

Auckland Council have commissioned the Tamaki Makaurau Sport and Recreation Facilities Priority Plan to investigate a new indoor recreation facility and multipurpose community hall integrated with the existing Library. These new community facilities would be integrated into a multi-purpose hub with new public space, including the creation of a town square. 

This area and Onehunga town centre is well serviced by public transport, with electric trains to the city centre and as a hub in the southern bus network. However, Auckland Transport have reviewed the future of buses on Upper Municipal Place and the option of relocating to the Rail Station parking site. Both locations are deemed unsustainable for the future transport network. As part of the new precinct a better integrated transport area will be created, with bus facilities, and streetscape improvements between it and the train station on Onehunga Mall.

Onehunga Wharf Precinct

The project area is comprised of:

Area A: a 10m wide corridor along the north of the port site. This will be used to create a walking and cycling connection to the Ngā Hau Māngere bridge and Onehunga Town Centre.

Area B: A section of land at the port’s western and coastal edge. This area is the primary focus of the restoration/ activation component of the project.

The main port area is not in scope at this time and is the site of currently leased properties.