America's Cup: 11th hour deal confirms Hosting for Auckland
by Richard Gladwell 29 Mar 2018 05:57 BST
29 March 2018
The accepted America's Cup bases plan drafted by Emirates Team New Zealand © Emirates Team New Zealand
The Governing Body of Auckland Council spent more than three hours discussing the latest proposal for the America's Cup bases in Auckland, before giving the plan unanimous support.
The meeting started with an hour long confidential meeting at which financial details were discussed. It is not clear exactly what these were or covered, but with the Council being at the limit of its borrowing, it is a fair guess that some sort of underwrite has gone in from the Government, along with a discussion of early lease termination payments and maybe remediation.
The deal was put together within a week after calculations of the actual cost of the Wynyard Basin proposal were significantly more than originally estimated. Other alternatives floated since the December 14, 2017 failed to bring the costs down to an acceptable level.
Faced with a self-imposed deadline of Monday March 26, 2018 for a Challengers Meeting in Milan, Emirates Team New Zealand came up with a new proposal which utilized the Viaduct Events Centre, which obviated the need for an extension to Halsey Street Wharf and put $35million back into the kitty.
The rushed nature of the deal was evident over the past week, with Emirates Team New Zealand having their logo on the plan circulated last week showing the bases on Wynyard Point, the America's Cup Defender taking over the cavernous Viaduct Events Centre, and Challenger of Record, Luna Rossa taking the only base on Hobson Wharf alongside the Maritime Museum.
At this morning's meeting the detail on the new proposal was scant, in comparison to previous meetings where very detailed reports and financial details were provided. The information put before the Council covered just a few pages, mostly of short comment on the issues, and a matrix of the costs of each major component of the development with an attribution of that cost to central Government and local Government.
Seven of the 23 Councillors were absent from today's meeting which was called at three days notice.
Unlike previous meetings, there was little discussion from those opposed to previous project plans, with the questioning being a fleshing out of some detail not covered in the proposal. That is quite a different atmosphere from the previous three meetings where the America's Cup has been on the agenda, which were marked by frayed tempers and heated discussion.
New Applications mean delay
From here, the current Resource Applications will be withdrawn, and the necessary reporting and consulting analysis and reports will be undertaken. Approximately $2.5million has been spent to date on the planning and resource consent process for the discarded option which will be refunded by the NZ Government. Some of the work will be transferred to the new project, but most will be new work.
Discarding the current Resource Consent Applications will cost several months on project timelines, however this is expected to be caught up during the less complex building phase.
The new deal is good news for Emirates Team New Zealand in that they will be the first to take over their base - the Viaduct Event Centre in August 2018, rather than the last under previous plans. The America's Cup Defenders will have a rent free base for the first America's Cup cycle - a rent holiday of $3.5million each year until 2021. That cost will be to Auckland Council and has been counted as part of the Council's contribution.
For the Challengers there are two double bases and three single bases on Wynyard Point, both double bases have already been allocated. Unless new Challengers out themselves, there will be no announcements of Challengers until entries close in three months time on June 30, 2018.
The vexed issue of rectification of contaminated land on Wynyard Point was only briefly traversed pending further geo-technical work. As the bases are deemed to be temporary, any hard stand area will allowed to be capped and sealed. No decision appears to have been made on base buildings and the degree of rectification required.
A significant change from the previous plan is that the teams will be supplied with a flat tarmac base area and will build their own bases, instead of Auckland Council designing the base buildings and then leasing these to the teams.
As part of the financing arrangements a proper governance structure has been put in place to handle the off the water aspects of the Defence, with Emirates Team New Zealand Director, Tina Symmans saying that a new company America's Cup Events Limited is being formed. It was first registered in 2013 and now shows four directors - all of whom are directors of Team New Zealand.
The team also revealed that they will be setting up a new building facility on Auckland's North Shore which will construct the team's two AC75's expected to cost NZ$10million each.
There was some discussion around the Event Fee to which the Government will be contributing $40million. Team New Zealand will add a further $40million with the funds being used to cover regatta costs including a free to air television broadcast for New Zealand viewers. Admittance to the America's Cup Village and facilities will also be free of charge to spectators.
Big crowds expected
The team is expecting 50,000 visitors per day for the regatta, which compares with the 20,000 per day for the recent Volvo Ocean race stopover. There was no mention of spectator facilities to be established on Auckland's North Shore, backing up the commitment that the racing would be easily viewed from on shore.
In contrast to the Minister of Business, Innovation and Employment responding to patsy questions in Parliament earlier in the week, Auckland Mayor Phil Goff was fulsome in his praise for Emirates Team New Zealand, as well as Council officials who worked long hours over the past week to get high level scoping and costing completed ahead of today's meeting.
"Emirates Team New Zealand played a major role in the option that we are now putting forward for acceptance. You made an extraordinary effort."
Director Tina Symmans responded saying that at times the project seemed like Mission Impossible. "In the inimitable ETNZ way when our backs are against the wall and it is impossible, we look to come up with a solution. Even if it is last minute and somewhat radical. The output of that is the plan you see before us today. Everyone has compromised, and that was the only way we were going to get to a solution in the right timeframe. Everyone has burnt the midnight oil over the past week or so."
Marine service facilities
Outside the meeting the Mayor made a commitment to securing the western side of Wynyard Point for marine based activities. "Part of our plan is to ensure that there is a marine industry kept on the western side of Wynyard Point. I think that is important for the City. It talks about our origins and creates jobs.
"We'd love to see a revival of the marine industry. This America's Cup is going to create hundreds of jobs in the marine industry across the City. It also reinforces our reputation as a city and a country that is at the cutting edge of boat-building technology and all the other technologies that go into producing boats like Team New Zealand has done in the past, and will do in the future," he added.
Emirates Team New Zealand COO, Kevin Shoebridge said the media facilities, which were to have been located in the Viaduct Events Centre would be rehoused in a central location, possibly elsewhere on Halsey Street Wharf.
The Class Rule for the AC75 yachts to be used in the 36th America's Cup has been released to the teams and will be released publicly in the next few hours.