Downtown Shopping Centre


Downtown Shopping Centre, formerly Westfield Downtown, was a smaller shopping centre with 12,417 m² gross lettable area in the Auckland CBD, Auckland City, New Zealand. It was situated at 11–19 Customs Street West between Lower Albert Street and the Britomart Transport Centre. In late 2012, it was sold by Westfield to Precinct Properties Holdings New Zealand Limited, formerly AMP NZ Office Limited. After 41 years, it closed on 28 May 2016 and by 23 November had been demolished. A highrise was built on the site and a new mall, with the future City Rail Link going through the foundations of the building.

Shopping centre

The centre had approximately 80 stores on three floors, with the three major stores being The Warehouse, Warehouse Stationery and Postie Plus. It was one of the few Westfield Group malls that did not provide a supermarket, but was also the only proper mall in the entire CBD area. In later years it was also known for being covered almost completely by huge exterior billboards, which repeatedly drew the ire of Council officers.
In 2005, the centre had retail sales of NZ$56.9 million, and 5.8 million customer visits per year. These were mostly CBD workers, tourists and the growing inner-city population. However, the centre had been called Westfield's most underperforming shopping centre in New Zealand. Lying in the middle of a much more densely built up CBD and being considered underdeveloped with only three storeys above ground, various other plans for the site were mooted during its latter years. The centre was valued at NZ$79.1 million.

Commercial Bay

In 2008, Westfield received approval via non-notified resource consent for a 41-storey office skyscraper on the site. The permission came under fire, as it was granted without protection requirements for a future rail tunnel from Britomart Transport Centre, which would have to pass under the building. However, in October 2008, ONTRACK noted that it had reached an agreement in principle with the owners of Westfield Downtown to allow the tunnel route to be threaded through the future foundations.
The Downtown Shopping Centre closed on 28 May 2016 after 41 years and by 23 November had been demolished. It is being replaced with a 36-storey skyscraper which will include a new shopping centre that includes a supermarket, bars, restaurants and food outlets in the lower levels. Auckland Council and proprietors Precinct Properties struck a deal to include tunnels for the City Rail Link directly underneath the premises.
The new development is named "Commercial Bay", whose name is referred back to the area's previous name in the 1900s. The first shop of the new Commercial Bay development, an H&M store, was opened in August 2018. Following multiple delays, the main shopping mall of the new Commercial Bay development was completed in June 2020.