SkyCity chief executive Graeme Stephens reflects on the blaze and tells how the building evacuation left the precinct a ghost town.

SkyCity's redevelopment ambitions have been revealed as a driving force behind controversial plans to relocate Auckland's long-distance bus terminal from its downtown complex.

The casino and hotel operator's plans are laid out in correspondence from Auckland Transport, which for several years has been eyeing up Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei-owned land on Beach Road, without the hapū's knowledge.

AT and SkyCity had hoped a new terminal could be ready mid-year, and documents sighted by Stuff, show SkyCity considering a challenge to the resource consent which has required it for the past 25 years to house the terminal.

DAVID WHITE/STUFF Auckland's long-distance bus terminal has for 25 years been within SkyCity's casino complex

SkyCity has not commented on development plans, and in a statement to Stuff said it is "not involved in discussions between Auckland Council, Auckland Transport and Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei Whai Rawa".

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Details of SkyCity's interest have emerged after an angry response from the hapū's commercial arm Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei Whai Rawa, to learning in January that its land was the preferred option following extensive design work by Auckland Transport.

AT's chief executive Shane Ellison wrote to Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei Whai Rawa, outlining its plan.

Supplied/Jos Wheeler Andrew Crocker, CEO of Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei Whai Rawa

"This is in response to SkyCity's intention to seek the termination of the current facility by the end of April 2020 in association with the redevelopment of Hobson Street and the International Conference Centre," wrote Ellison.

The hapū's company has since met with AT officials where more information was presented, but the plan has not been accepted.

"Our concern is that this has been presented as a fait accomplis without any consultation with Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei, and the fact that this has been going on since 2017 – we're pretty unhappy about it," the chief executive Andrew Crocker told Stuff.

None An artist impression of a possible future market on Ngati Whatua land on Beach Road

Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei Whai Rawa obtained from Auckland Transport a 500-page file on more than five years of work on a relocated long-distance bus terminal.

It includes an Auckland Council form filled out by SkyCity's town planners, seeking a "pre-application meeting" on the issue "to delete and cancel conditions of original SkyCity consent requiring the provision of public bus terminal".

Auckland Council has confirmed that meeting took place.

DAVID WHITE/STUFF A traveller at Auckland's downtown, long-distance bus terminal

The casino and hotel operator's resource consent for its Auckland complex, which opened in 1996, required it to house the terminal on the Hobson Street side of the complex.

In a statement to Stuff SkyCity said while it was not involved in the latest discussions, it "has a desire for the terminal to be relocated".

"The original decision to locate the terminal at SkyCity was made well over 25 years ago, today that use does not fit well with the activities on the wider site, including the NZICC (convention centre) and the facility could be put to a more useful purpose," it said.

None A masterplan concept by Ngati Whatua for Auckland waterfront land should the port re-locate

"SkyCity has investigated the implications for its resource consent if the terminal was relocated."

The company did not respond to questions about the pre-planning application, or Auckland Transport's portrayal of SkyCity seeking to end the requirement to accommodate the terminal, by April.

The mayor Phil Goff would not be interviewed, but in a statement referred to SkyCity's interest in the resource consent requirement.

"We understand it may seek to alter or remove that condition from the consent through a Section 137 application under the Resource Management Act."

Stuff understands that the October 2019 fire which badly damaged SkyCity's partly-completed International convention centre opposite the Hobson Street complex, may have removed some of the urgency around a possible re-location of the bus terminal.

The Bus and Coach Association, which had publicly opposed the 2016 plan to re-locate the terminal to Manukau City, said it was unaware of the latest plan.

The current proposal is to use land on Beach Road currently leased by AT from Ngāti Whātua for car parking, as well as requiring additional land for buses to drive around the perimeter of the garden reserve, in front of the former railway station.

Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei Whai Rawa said it had its own concept plans for its downtown land, including the site proposed for a bus terminal, and believed the current, central Hobson Street site would increasingly become the best place for the bus terminal.